Temporal Quintessence
by Nuclear Hell Raven
Summary: An assassination plot aimed at Remilia Scarlet. A hideous revolution of twisted motives. A desperate search to recover the one she lost. A malicious plot to drag all into the world of fear. A betrayal of mistresses with catastrophic consequences. Secrets hidden away from the light of truth. The clock has been set for 24 hours, and Gensokyo will experience a day like none other.
1. 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

**Disclaimer: Touhou Project, Gensokyo, and all its characters belong to ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice. The cover image used was created by kuriya0kuriya. I am neither of these people, and so I don't own either of their creations, of course.  
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In a land as crazy and strange as the separated world of Gensokyo, in which odd circumstances are nearly a daily tradition, it is quite unusual for there to be actually nothing noteworthy happening. However, such was the plight of a crow tengu girl who, after stopping her midair flight and folding up her wings, began to read back what she had written in her notebook for today.

"Big stories: nothing. Current events: nada. Obituaries: the only bucket that's been kicked is Kisume's. Local culture: Nitori bought a new hat after she blew up the last one in an experiment." She slammed the notebook shut with a loud bang and brought a palm to her face, covering her exasperated red eyes and letting her black hair get ruffled in the process.

"Ayayaya!" she grumbled, frustrated. "Who's going to read the Bunbunmaru newspaper if it's completely blank?! There must be at least _one_ newsworthy thing in this whole place."

Holding in a sigh, Aya Shameimaru, ace reporter of her own newspaper, took a brief look at the area around where she had decided to land. While the closely-growing trees that produced shady, overgrown foliage in the forest didn't house many interesting things, they broke in the distance into a small clearing in front of a lake. The Misty Lake, as it was called, was where several mischievous fairies called home, but Aya could care less about them. The real point of interest was what it held on the island in the center: a grandiose mansion that housed some of the most curious individuals imaginable. Aya took a brief glimpse at the horizon, where the sunset was a few minutes away from its glorious red and orange colors.

"They're probably waking up around now," she concluded from this observation. "It's as good of a place as any to find a big scoop."

Aya held her notebook to her side, as it was too big and important to go into a pocket of her blouse or skirt, and let her wings open up again to the evening air. In the blink of an eye, she was soaring off towards the mansion in the middle of the lake, reaching speeds unbelievable to anyone not familiar with the crow tengu.

* * *

><p>Remilia Scarlet, owner of the famous Scarlet Devil Mansion, was indeed opening her crimson eyes to the last few glimmers of sunlight of the day at this moment, just as Aya had predicted. As she took a great yawn, she exposed her vampire fangs to the world around her. Lazily rolling from one side of her lavish bed to the other in an attempt to wake up more easily, she stretched both her arms and bat wings into the air, brushing her light-blue hair out of her face. Though she appeared to be no older than a child, her true age was beyond 500 years.<p>

"Sakuya," she called to the other side of the door of her room, "I'm awake." Within seconds, the door opened, and a girl with silver hair and dark blue eyes dressed in a blue maid's outfit stepped in with a warm, polite smile.

"Ah, Miss Remilia," she greeted. "Good evening. I trust you slept well today?" Remilia shrugged casually, not bothering to keep her elegant image when just with Sakuya.

"Typical dreams and all; there wasn't anything really worth talking about. Could I have some tea?"

"Of course, my lady." Sakuya walked gracefully over to her mistress's side, carrying a glass tray that held an intricately designed tea set. As she began to pour the steaming drink into a teacup, her eyes strayed upon a piece of paper lying on Remilia's bedside table. It appeared to be a document with a fancy border consisting of a repeating pattern of green flowers spiraling around purple butterflies. "Oh? What's this? Were you writing a letter last night, Miss Remilia?"

Remilia frowned, lowering her eyebrows. "No, I wasn't. Someone must have left this for me. Coming into my room while I'm sleeping and dropping the letter off here instead of just putting it in the mailbox is quite insolent, though. Does it say who it's from?" Sakuya glanced at the bottom of the letter where the signature was neatly written.

"The author seems to wish to remain anonymous. Shall I read it for you, my lady?" After an approving nod from Remilia, Sakuya carefully examined what had been written on the piece of paper. Her eyes seemed to relay shifting emotions between confusion and anger as she read through the letter, which made Remilia very curious about what it was about. As Sakuya reached the end, she suddenly put a hand to her mouth in horror and let the tray holding the tea fall from her grasp, shattering into tiny bits and spilling hot tea on the floor. Remilia watched the mess form with a half-amused smirk.

"And that was one of my favorite sets of teacups," she muttered. "Sakuya, just what is in this letter that made you do that?" After vanishing for a moment and instantly cleaning up the mess she had made (the ability to stop time is quite useful for a maid to complete her mistress's chores in mere moments), Sakuya handed the letter to her mistress with a trembling hand.

"M-m-my apologies, but Miss Remilia, may I suggest you read it?" she stammered, the horrified look on her face remaining. Remilia rolled her eyes.

"What's gotten into you today, Sakuya?" she asked. "I doubt whatever's in this letter is that bad." Rubbing the last bit of sleep from her eyes, she took a look at the letter.

_To Miss Remilia Scarlet,_

_Strength is a rather funny thing, is it not? Some may be completely incapable in physical power, yet hold such an authority over others that it translates into strength. Others have all the power in the world, yet are forever condemned to lives of serving those higher up in influence._

_Then, there are those who possess both types of power, and those who have neither. Gensokyo is one such place in which this situation is occurring, and the time has come that a radical shift let these roles reverse._

_Miss Scarlet, as a person of both great power and authority, do you disagree with the idea that the weaker denizens of this land deserve to rise up and become the ones of power themselves? I have always advocated the idea that fairness and a fighting chance are the least you can provide for an opponent, and for that reason, I write this letter to you. At midnight of tonight or before it, your long life shall meet its end at the hands of a most skilled killer. I certainly encourage you to try to avert this or to discover my identity, as the struggle to reclaim Gensokyo from tyrants would be very quick and boring otherwise._

_I should probably wrap up this letter before I begin to digress. Please enjoy the final evening of your life to its fullest, Miss Scarlet._

_Sincerely,_

_A Patriot Fighting for a Better Gensokyo_

Remilia gently set the letter back down on the bedside table and looked up at Sakuya, her scarlet eyes gleaming in excitement. "Well, this is certainly an interesting turn of events, is it not?"

Sakuya rubbed the back of her head in confusion. "Y-you're not concerned or worried, my lady?"

Remilia giggled softly. "I would be more concerned and worried for whoever wrote the letter. After all, I'm not the one who will be sucked dry of all of her warm, succulent blood when she is caught." She licked her lips in anticipation and let her razor-sharp fangs show again before pulling off her bed covers and sitting up. "Anyway, notify the rest of the staff about this and tell them to report any suspicious activity they see. I'm going to get dressed."

Sakuya bowed respectfully and began to exit the room before turning back. "Is there anything else, Miss Remilia?"

Remilia pointed out the window to the courtyard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where the red-haired gatekeeper Hong Meiling was peacefully taking a nap. "Make sure China actually stays awake and does her job tonight. It wouldn't be very pleasant to end up dying just because she's too tired to keep anyone out."

"As you wish, my lady." Sakuya bowed again before taking her leave, gently closing the door behind her. Remilia hopped out of bed and let her feet get a good grip on the plush carpet beneath them before heading towards her wardrobe to change into her usual pink dress. Aya, who had been watching and listening in on the entire conversation at the window unbeknownst to either Remilia or Sakuya, grinned as she furiously scribbled down the entire story in her notebook.

"Well, well, well," Aya laughed to herself. "It seems good things come to those who wait. _This_ is exactly the kind of story I was hoping for!" She quickly snapped one photo of Remilia and one of the foreboding letter before taking off to keep from being spotted.

* * *

><p>While Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghostly princess of the Netherworld, was not particularly known to be a nocturnal dweller, she enjoyed taking a brief afternoon nap after a big feast for lunch. Hence, she emerged from her home in Hakugyokorou with a lazy yawn into the middle of the Netherworld just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Though she wore her typical blue and white kimono, her wavy pink hair was not contained by her usual hat. As she emerged into the gardens of Hakugyokorou, Yuyuko marveled at all the cherry blossoms that were blooming around here, creating a beautiful collage of pink in every tree of the gardens. The largest tree, Saigyou Ayakashi, did not bloom, but Yuyuko was wise enough to remember not to bother with it after the incident that occurred five years earlier. The ghostly butterflies she was so fond of that glowed purple and blue fluttered all around the trees, and one even stopped to land on Yuyuko's head. After gently stroking the insect's antennae, she looked over to a silver-haired girl wearing a dark green dress and being circled by the marshmallow-looking phantom half of her body. The human-phantom girl was sitting high in the middle of one of the cherry trees and carefully pruning unruly branches with her two swords.<p>

"Youmu!" called Yuyuko from the base of the tree. "How are you doing up there?" Youmu Konpaku looked down in surprise when she heard Yuyuko's voice, and she caused a small amount of cherry blossoms to shower on Yuyuko's head as she shifted her position in the tree.

"Lady Yuyuko! It's good to see you're awake again," Youmu replied. "But your hair is a mess! Did you lose your hat? Showing such a poor image is not a setting a good example for the rest of the spirits of the Netherworld as their princess." Yuyuko laughed merrily and shook off all the blossoms that had fallen on her.

"Relax," she chuckled. "You're so serious all the time. I think I've come to like the hatless me image." Youmu sighed, knowing it would be pointless to argue with Yuyuko on something like this.

"If you want to try a new style, I guess there's no stopping you," said Youmu. "I am a gardener, not a fashion expert, so I wouldn't really know if it's good or bad anyway." Finished with the pruning of that cherry tree, she dismounted the branches she was standing on and returned to the ground.

"In any event, I've got a busy evening planned, so I'd love it if you could do a couple of errands for me," said Yuyuko. "You could leave Myon here so I'll be able to satisfy my hunger while you're doing them." Youmu looked horrified and hugged the phantom-half of her body tightly to her chest.

"Not Myon! That would be like eating my leg," she cried. Yuyuko gave a jolly grin and affectionately pinched Youmu's cheek, causing her to back away in embarrassment.

"Oh, you," she laughed. "You look so cute when you're all flustered. I'm only kidding. Besides, I've found out that regular marshmallows taste much better than phantom ones. All you need to do is go to Rinnosuke's store and pick up an order I placed earlier. Then, cook dinner for both you and me. I'm probably going to be _really_ hungry after tonight, so be sure to cook lots of food!" This was no understatement; Yuyuko's appetite was unrivaled in all of Gensokyo. Still, Youmu nodded and accepted the task.

"All right, Lady Yuyuko," she replied, "I can do that. But what is the order you placed at the store, anyway?" Yuyuko casually waved her hand.

"It's nothing really important," she said. "Just something we've run out of that I thought I could use here. It won't be anything really big or dangerous to carry."

Youmu was a bit puzzled by her lady's vagueness regarding the order, but she bowed and sheathed her two swords before setting off towards the border of the Netherworld to reach the store. Yuyuko began to walk back to Hakugyokorou, stopping for a minute to pick up and devour an apple that Youmu had accidentally dropped as she was working in the gardens.

* * *

><p>While the vampire mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was preparing herself for the evening after reading an assassination attempt on her life, another girl was waking up about 50 feet directly below her. This girl, who had no pajamas and simply always dressed in a red vest and skirt, awoke from the small cot she slept on and took a look around her. The dim, dingy basement that she lived in would be hard to see in for most people, but a vampire like her had no trouble seeing in the dark. She looked down to the side of her cot and quickly found the pink frilly hat she had dropped on the floor. After brushing off the dust that had accumulated on it during the day, she casually placed it on her head and pulled it over her blonde hair, letting the ponytail drawn up with a red ribbon on her left side drop freely.<p>

When this brief process of getting ready for the night was finished, the girl threw the single sheet on her bed to the side and let her feet hit the cold stone floor. Gingerly walking to avoid stepping on one of the various mangled toys or stuffed animals strewn around the room, she made her way to the wall opposite the cot. Every step she took made a resounding echo around the whole basement, though she was the only one to hear them. When she reached the wall, she picked up a red pen lying on the floor and examined a calendar creased along three of its corners.

"Ah," the girl murmured. "It's just a day away now." She made a large circle around the square that corresponded to tomorrow and smiled as she realized how soon this was.

A slow creaking of the great metal door in the basement suddenly caused the girl to turn her head in that direction, her red eyes piercing the darkness and her wings of multicolored shards flapping lightly. Her heart began to speed up slightly; was somebody paying her a visit? The door was designed to be impossible to open on her side, so others would have to come and see her instead of her seeing them.

The one who opened the door was a blonde fairy wearing a simple maid's outfit and carrying a single cup of a deep red drink. "Flandre Scarlet, is it?" she asked. "Here is your breakfast, prepared exactly as Sakuya Izayoi ordered." Flandre, disappointed but not surprised by the identity of the visitor, casually grabbed the cup from the fairy and downed it in two quick gulps. The fairy had been given orders not to reveal what was in the drink, but Flandre had already figured it out since about the third day she began to receive the drinks for breakfast.

"By the way," began Flandre as she handed the empty cup back to the fairy, "do you know what tomorrow is?" The fairy, puzzled by the strange question, pondered it for a moment.

"Umm, I think it's a Wednesday," she said, trying intently to remember the date. "Is it Wednesday the 24th? Or is it the 25th? I'm sorry; I'm not very good with remembering days."

Flandre frowned and shook her head. "No, no, no," she said. "I'm talking about the special event that's happening tomorrow. You remember, don't you?" The confused fairy scratched her head for a moment before shrugging.

"Sorry," she replied, "but I really don't know what you're talking about. It's actually my first day working here, so I'm not too familiar with the important events. My apologies, Flandre."

Flandre turned her back on the fairy and sat down on the floor dejectedly. "Whatever; it's fine. You can go ahead and leave now." The fairy nodded and shut the door again, letting the big lock of the door click on her way out. Flandre, once again alone in the dark, paced back and forth on the basement floor before she accidentally stubbed her toe on something that was lying on the floor.

"Ow!" Flandre cried, looking down at the quickly-reddening toe before locating the perpetrator of the crime: a baby-blue rabbit toy made of steel that grinned up at her with cartoon eyes and a goofy smile. "Stupid rabbit," she muttered to herself. "Why do I even keep things like that around anymore? I'm getting kind of old to be playing with toys." Concentrating intently, she stared at the grinning rabbit until a small circle resembling an eye appeared to her in the center. Holding out her arm, the "eye" floated right into her open hand. As soon as it was in her palm, she clenched her fist tightly, causing the grinning rabbit to smile for the final time as it suddenly exploded into hundreds of bits of steel. The pieces of steel scattered all over the basement from the force of the explosion and Flandre smiled to herself in satisfaction.

* * *

><p>Voile, the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, was incredibly massive, just like the rest of the mansion; Sakuya's abilities to manipulate time also extended to manipulating space. Rows and rows of books were lined up on every wall, and the shelves in the middle of the room were so tall that they created what seemed to be a labyrinth. At the front of the room, there was even a grand staircase leading up to a second floor filled with an equal amount of books. As Remilia's pale skin could not tolerate the sunlight, the library was the only room in the mansion to have great windows, as she rarely ventured inside of it. Rather, the main dweller of Voile was its librarian, a magician named Patchouli Knowledge who even now was sitting in a chair in the back of the library and reading one of her books.<p>

Patchouli Knowledge was girl who must have adored the color purple: her hair was purple, her eyes were violet, and the pajamas and nightcap she wore even during the day were lavender. Even the ribbons adorning her hair were alternating blue and red. The only thing that did not have a connection to the color purple was the yellow crescent moon shape attached to her nightcap.

As Patchouli turned the pages of her book, she lightly stifled a cough. It was primarily from the asthma and anemia she suffered from that she rarely left the library, instead spending most of her days reading books in the quiet and peaceful environment. However, if an intruder decided to pay a visit to the library (as was often the case), Patchouli was not afraid to blast them away with her strong elemental magic.

An energetic call from the other side of the library got her attention. "Mistress Patchouli!" shouted a red-haired girl wearing a black dress with bat-like wings coming out of her head and back who was running towards her now. "Mistress Patchouli! I organized every book of Section EF 8! Just like you asked. It's all nice and neat now."

Patchouli looked up from her book and nodded approvingly at the energetic library assistant standing in front of her. "Well done, Koakuma. That was the last task I needed done today, so feel free to relax for the rest of the evening."

Koakuma grinned with glee, the wings on head softly waving back and forth. "Thanks, mistress! I'll be right back here at the crack of dawn tomorrow." The little devil happily began to rush down the rows of shelves towards the door leading out. Just as she was about to open the door, though, it swung open from the other side, knocking the poor girl down to the floor with its force.

"Patchouli! Where are you?" shouted Sakuya, hair slightly ruffled from distress as she burst into the library. She wasted no time running straight to the chairs at the back where Patchouli would always read through a good part of the day.

As Sakuya approached her, Patchouli set the book she was reading down and looked up at the flustered maid. "Yes, Sakuya? Please don't be so loud in here; it is a library, after all."

"Sorry, Patchouli," replied Sakuya. "It's just, this is pretty urgent." Patchouli closed the book on her lap and stared patiently. "Just half an hour ago, Miss Remilia and I discovered a letter that had been delivered to her bedside table," Sakuya continued. "This letter… well… it's a death threat addressed to her. The person who wrote it claims she will kill Miss Remilia before midnight tonight."

Patchouli rubbed her eyes and let them wander thoughtfully. "Oh my. And you have no idea who this killer will be?"

"Unfortunately, none at all," replied Sakuya. She ran a finger along the edge of one of the sharper knives she carried around and lowered her eyebrows. "Of course, the whole mansion is on high alert so we can hopefully stop this assassin before they even lay a finger on the mistress. But still… I feel scared that we don't know who it's going to be. You're the smartest person I can fully trust, so…"

"You want me to find out who it is, right?" Patchouli finished. She rubbed her forehead in frustration as she realized the quiet evening she had planned would not be taking place, but still gave Sakuya the best diplomatic smile she could manage. "I'd be as devastated as you if Miss Remilia got assassinated. I'll do my best to figure it out, okay?"

Sakuya thanked her profusely and handed over the letter, which Patchouli held delicately. "I wish you the best of luck exposing this miserable creature. I have to go check on Meiling; she is definitely getting a knife to the head if I find her sleeping again!" Sakuya promptly dashed back to the door and exited the library, slamming the door shut and causing Koakuma to get hit by the force again.

"Somebody is after Remilia and I have a little more than five hours to figure out who it is," murmured Patchouli to herself, slowly walking back to her chair as her mind was deep in thought.

"My, sounds like a pretty difficult task you've been presented with, doesn't it?" said a voice from behind one of the shelves.

Patchouli groaned as she walked around the shelf. "Sorry, but I really don't have any time for whoever's here. If this is another one of Marisa's awful attempts to steal some of my books, I am just not in the mood for it today."

"Really? You don't have time for somebody who's going to help you figure out this mystery? That seems a bit foolish, Patchy," replied the voice. Patchouli stood before the corner of the shelf separating her and the other person and took a peek around. The woman standing before her had long blonde hair, an elegant purple dress, and a white hat with red ribbons and bows all about her. She smiled mysteriously as she twirled her light-pink parasol in one of her gloved hands.

"Yukari," greeted Patchouli in a deadpan tone, fully turning the corner. "How did you get in my library?"

"It's one of the stops on my daily unspotted tour of all of Gensokyo, of course. I always create border gaps in every major location that I stick my head into to see what everybody is up to. When I heard Sakuya talking about this little incident with Remilia and wanting you to resolve it, I figured you'd appreciate some help with it from the beautiful youkai of boundaries herself." Yukari walked up to Patchouli and put a hand around her back, directing her towards the chairs in the back of the library.

Patchouli smiled wryly as she walked with Yukari. "Before I agree to anything, I'd like to know why you of all people are so willing to help me here. I would have expected you to sleep through this and hope someone else deals with it or send your shikigami to help me."

Yukari laughed good-naturedly. "It's fun to insult someone after they so generously offer to help you, isn't it?" Her face suddenly grew serious. "Still… I have a feeling that this whole situation is bigger than you'd think at first. It could be that Remilia's assassination is just the first step to achieving a greater goal that could threaten the entire Gensokyo. I might be a pretty lazy youkai, but I'm not going to sit around and let Gensokyo die."

Patchouli frowned, still skeptical of this newfound "help". "How do I know that _you're_ not the one who wrote that letter, Yukari? You could have easily just slipped through a gap to deliver it to Remilia and then disappeared, right? I don't think having the killer help expose herself would be a very good idea."

Yukari brought a paper fan up to her face and lightly fanned herself, letting only her violet eyes show as they remained locked on Patchouli. She let a rather eerie chuckle emanate from behind the fan. "I suppose you'll just have to trust me in that aspect. But what have the humans said about me in the past? Yes, that's right; I'm the kind of youkai that shouldn't be trusted." Yukari looked at the end of the row of shelves, and in that location a border gap tied by two red ribbons and containing what appeared to be hundreds of red disembodied eyes formed. "Well, if you don't need my assistance in taking care of this incident, I'd best be on my way."

Just as Yukari was about to walk into the gap, Patchouli changed her mind. "Hold on a minute," she said quickly. "I'll accept your offer to help me with this on one condition."

Yukari looked behind her shoulder and smiled curiously at the magician. "Oh?" she asked. "And what might that be, Patchy?"

"We bring a few more people in to help in the investigation. Basically, people who could have my back in case you do decide to betray me." Patchouli coughed lightly. "It's not so much that I distrust _you_; I just can't be too careful when my friend's life is on the line."

Yukari let the gap close and turned around to face Patchouli. "Very wise. All right, I agree to your condition." She smiled in a friendly manner, holding her hands together. "Well, now that it's settled," she said, "what are we waiting for? Let's begin our investigation into this incident."

* * *

><p>Kourindou, the antique store run by Rinnosuke Morichika, was located right on the very edge of the Forest of Magic. Though its owner did not battle, being a half-youkai meant he could live in this spot without the fear of being attack or eaten. As Youmu opened the door of the dusty shop, she let her eyes adjust to the dark room inside before walking in. As she approached the counter, the glasses-wearing silver-haired Rinnosuke emerged from one of the back rooms and greeted her.<p>

"Miss Youmu Konpaku, I presume?" he said. "Welcome to Kourindou! May I interest you in any of our fine wares?" He picked up a rectangular piece of metal and plastic with many buttons on it that had the word Nokia printed on the back. "We just received this last night. Apparently it is called a 'cell phone'. You use it to talk to other people, even if they're very far away. Since nobody else in Gensokyo has one, though, I'm not sure how much it would be useful."

"No thank you," replied Youmu tersely. "I'm here to pick up an order that Lady Yuyuko placed earlier. She didn't say what it was, though."

"Ah, of course. I have it right here." Rinnosuke put the cell phone back where it was and pushed a pile of random junk to the side on the counter, picking up a package wrapped in brown paper that had been underneath it. "After this machine that creates clones of paper showed up here about a month ago, I decided to try to make some money selling mass quantities of custom-designed stationery. Seeing as I had to color each piece of paper by hand, the business hasn't been going too well for me. Still, Yuyuko Saigyouji bought a sample of 10 sheets not too long ago, and she then put in an order for 100 more. Here it is."

Just as Rinnosuke was handing over the sheets of stationery, he got hit in the face by a newspaper thrown at him that flew through the open door. "Sorry!" yelled Aya's voice from outside as she zipped off, delivering more papers. Grumbling softly, he pulled the newspaper off from his face and looked down at the front page.

"Wow, that's interesting," he commented. "Apparently Remilia Scarlet of the Scarlet Devil Mansion has received a death threat this evening." Youmu craned her head sideways to read the article.

"How terrible," she responded. "I certainly hope they find out who it is before something bad happens to her. Anyway, I've got to get going. Cooking dinner for Yuyuko is certainly no simple task."

Rinnosuke looked up from his paper. "All right. Please come again!" As Youmu was about walking out the door with the stationery in hand, he suddenly gasped. "Whoa! Hold on a sec!"

Youmu turned around, slightly annoyed by being delayed. "Yes? What is it?"

Rinnosuke frowned. "I'm not sure… but I have a hunch about this. Youmu, may I see a sheet of the stationery, please?" After Youmu ripped open the package and gave a sheet to Rinnosuke, he held it up and compared it to the newspaper. "Ah, just as I thought!" he said. "Youmu, come take a look at this!" Youmu, intrigued, compared the two pieces of paper side by side. "Look at the picture of the death threat letter here," he said.

Youmu observed the picture of the letter printed at the bottom of the article that had a visible pattern around it. She then looked carefully at the piece of stationery in her hand. It had a border featuring spiraling green flowers around purple butterflies. "T-that can't be. They're… the same pattern!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly!" concurred Rinnosuke. "And the only person who has bought stationery in that particular pattern is Hakugyokorou's princess and your mistress, Yuyuko."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** Well, here we are, at the end of the first chapter of my first ever fanfic. By the way, despite how the title may seem, this is not a crossover story. Despite being a story about a group of people getting together to stop a terrorist threat over the course of 24 hours, it will take place entirely in the Touhou universe with just its characters. If it turns out that this should actually go in the Crossover section, please tell me.

Anyway, yeah. Is Yuyuko really the one who wrote the letter? Will Patchouli discover the mastermind behind this plot before it's too late? Why is Yukari so eager to help her? Will anyone buy Rinnosuke's cell phone? The answers to these questions and more probably won't be answered in the next immediate chapter, but they will in good time, so stay tuned for more of Temporal Quintessence.


	2. 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Youmu Konpaku was a girl who had been training nearly all her life to be an expert swordsman like her father had been. This was the way that both of them had decided to become worthy of guarding Yuyuko by. From all this training, she could, under the right conditions, run at speeds that would make even the speed of sound feel jealous. However, as countless thoughts clouded her mind at the moment, she was walking on the open road back to Hakugyokurou at a rather slow pace.

"What am I going to do?" she thought out loud, a distraught look spread over her face. "What _am_ I going to do? This can't be true. There has to be a logical explanation for it." She looked at Myon, which was wriggling its ghostly body around her in distress. "Lady Yuyuko's not the kind of ghost who kills people. I mean, she does have the ability to invite mortals to their death with just a touch, but it doesn't mean she uses it! Right?" She stopped walking and looked at the phantom again as if expecting a confirmation of her assumption; Myon just twitched slightly as it had no way to talk. "And anyway, why would she use her unique stationery to write the letter? That would way too stupid of a mistake for a killer to make. Although… she does sometimes act like an airhead." She frowned and slapped her own face. "What am I saying?! How dare I even suggest that! Even if it might be true…"

As Youmu continued to try to convince herself of both sides of the argument as she walked down the road, she wasn't looking where she was going. So, she collided headfirst with an oni who was walking the other way, getting knocked to the ground in the process.

"Heeey," the oni said with a high-pitched drunken slur, "watch where you're goin', why don'tcha?" Youmu tilted her head up with a cry of surprise from the ground and got a good look at the young oni. She had two horns decorated with ribbons coming out of her radiant orange hair, and wore a tattered white blouse, purple skirt, and chains that were attached to her arms and hair.

"Oh. Sorry, Suika," Youmu apologized absentmindedly as she dusted herself off and got back on her feet.

"S'okay." Suika picked up her drinking gourd which had fallen to the ground in the collision. "You look kinda messed up, though. Something go wrong?"

"N-n-no! Of course not!" Youmu stammered, an inevitable blush forming on her cheeks as she quickly denied the claim. "J-just a little problem I need to sort out."

Suika, who was not the best at understanding subtleties, scratched her head and stared at Youmu with big brown eyes in confusion. "Umm… okay, I guess. Well, I was invited down to the Ancient City in the Former Hell for an oni drinking party. You wanna come?"

Youmu sighed as the oni eagerly took a big gulp from the Ibuki-gourd of infinite sake to demonstrate. "Thanks for the offer, but no. I have a lot of important things to do tonight, and I don't think sake would help me very much with them."

"Really?" Suika asked doubtfully. "It always does wonders for me. Hell, the only time I'm weak is when I'm sober." She shrugged slightly, making her balance shift in her drunken state. "Well, suit yourself. If you change your mind, I doubt the Ancient City's gonna run outta sake anytime soon."

The two exchanged their goodbyes, and Youmu continued on her way back to the Netherworld. After a short while to make sure that Suika was out of earshot, she began to frantically talk to herself again about whether Yuyuko was responsible for the letter or not.

* * *

><p>Patchouli sat at one of the large wooden desks in the center of the library, resting her chin on one hand and drumming her fingers on the table surface with the other. She looked at the great bronze clock on the wall that Sakuya had set up a while ago; it was continuously ticking, constantly recording every second that passed without progress on finding the one bent on killing Remilia happening.<p>

"Count on Yukari to make 'stepping out for a second' last five minutes," she muttered impatiently. While she waited for Yukari to show up after disappearing, the purple-haired magician was completely unaware of another presence that had entered the quiet room on its own accord. This presence moved with absolute silence as it gently let its feet carry it through the library. As it descended down the long corridors between bookshelves, it was aimed directly at the back of Patchouli, who continued to pass the time without thinking of turning around. Although the creature stuck to the shadows of the rapidly-darkening twilight, it left just a hint of a body shape as it rapidly descended on the librarian.

Koakuma, who was rubbing a slightly swollen head while sitting at the door of the library, gasped as she saw the shadows of the dim library shift back and forth to account for the added presence moving among them. "Mistress Patchouli!" she shouted with a hint of panic. "There's someone there—"

The little demon's warning was too late to be of any use, however. Before Patchouli could react to the shout, a hand reached out from behind and firmly grasped her shoulder.

"I've got you!" a voice of triumph shouted.

"Mukyuu!" Patchouli gasped, her eyes bulging open in sheer terror and shock as she whirled around backwards.

"Ha ha HA!" a rough and wild yet likable and not unkind voice laughed. "Man, did you see that? She totally got scared out of her pajamas, ze!"

After promptly entering a coughing fit from the scare, Patchouli looked into the darkness at the one who had snuck up on her. The girl roaring with laughter was easily distinguishable from her long blonde hair, big black witch hat, black dress with a white apron, and a long wooden broom: it was Marisa Kirisame, the Ordinary Magician.

"That was mean, Marisa," Patchouli pouted, trying to catch her breath.

Marisa shrugged. "Sorry," she said. "It's not my fault that you have the funniest reaction to being startled of everyone in Gensokyo."

"It wasn't that funny," the librarian denied with a stubborn frown on her face.

Marisa started to crack up again. "Are you kidding? Your face looked like the one an elephant gets when it sees a mouse!"

Patchouli crossed her arms. "Anyway," she said, "what are you doing here? Planning on swiping some books, no doubt?"

"Nah," Marisa replied nonchalantly. "That's not my main reason for being here, though I'm sure you won't mind if I 'borrow' a few of those nice grimoires in the back, right? Anyway, the gap hag told me you needed a little help on this incident from people you can trust, so here I am!"

"You? Trustworthy? Ha!" Patchouli said with a wry smile. "That's much funnier than any prank you can pull on me." As Marisa looked genuinely hurt from that remark, Patchouli replaced the smirk with a slightly friendlier smile. "Still… you and I worked pretty well together last month during that underground incident. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have you around to help, especially if I have a need of a physical power or something."

Marisa grinned mischievously. "All right, all right; if you don't want to say you love me and long for my company outright, that's okay. I'll just keep it as my little secret, ze."

Patchouli's face started blushing and she turned away from Marisa. "Mukyuu," she said nervously. "I-I mean, don't be ridiculous."

Marisa laughed and patted the librarian on the head. "Whatever you say, Patchy girl! Maybe you can repay me later in the form of a couple of books…"

"Don't push it," Patchouli replied, regaining the normal color of her cheeks as she turned back towards the magician. "If you take my books, you also take a Royal Flare to the face."

"Meh, it was worth a try," Marisa said with a shrug. "Anyway, I'm not the only one Yukari brought along to help out our favorite librarian."

Patchouli coughed and brought a hand to her forehead. "Oh? And who else is going to join this wonderful group of random stragglers with the aim of stopping a killer?"

"Well, for one, the shrine maiden who usually resolves most of the incidents that pop up around Gensokyo," replied another voice from behind. As the owner of the voice walked up to Patchouli and Marisa, they could easily identify her as Reimu Hakurei, the resident miko of the Hakurei Shrine on the edge of Gensokyo. She wore her typical outfit of a red dress and hair bow in her long brown hair coupled with white detached sleeves and carried a long gohei.

"So the red-white one is here, too?" Patchouli said. "I guess Yukari does know how to get the best incident solvers on the case, I'll give her that."

"Of course!" Reimu agreed with a chipper smile. "She promised to put 10000 yen in my donation box if I work with you here, so let's do this!"

"I'll make it 20000 yen if you help me get this little one under control!" Yukari's voice floated into the library, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds of Patchouli, Marisa, and Reimu looking around the room aimlessly, a gap formed in the air above the table that Patchouli was sitting at. Out of it spilled Yukari, Alice Margatroid, and seven of Alice's dolls, most of which were trying to swarm and attack Yukari. The two girls crashed onto the table as the gap dissipated, scattering many of the papers and books that had been neatly stacked on it in every direction.

Alice carefully fixed her short blonde hair to an acceptable appearance, crossed her arms in front of the light blue dress she was wearing, and stared angrily at Yukari. "What part of 'No, I don't want to' do you not understand?! I've got much better things to do than to help some asthmatic librarian out with an incident."  
>Yukari casually picked up one of the dolls that was punching her side with its little fists and flicked it away, causing it to crash into the wall on the far-side of the library. "You don't say. Well, would you mind sharing with us these supremely-important events that just can't wait until later?"<p>

All eyes were on Alice as the girls waited for an answer. "I've got plans to begin designing a new line of attack dolls, I have to study up on a couple of magic techniques, and… I… can't think of anything else super-important off the top of my head." She blushed lightly as she realized the lack of answers she had.

Marisa jumped onto the table and put a hand around Alice's back, grinning. "She's too embarrassed to admit it, but Wednesdays are when Alice gets rid of her loner attitude for a day and hangs out with me, ze!"

"You didn't have to go blabbing it to everyone, you know," Alice muttered as she watched Yukari stifling a chuckle, Reimu smirking, and Patchouli narrowing her eyes.

"She's still kind of sensitive about the whole thing," explained Marisa to the rest of the girls. She turned back to Alice. "Anyway, how about we stay here for now, resolve the incident, reap the rewards, and then hang out later?"

Alice made the loudest sigh she could and threw her hands into the air, calling back the dolls that were still loyally attacking Yukari. "Fine," she groaned, turning to Patchouli. "This is just because I have nothing better to do tonight and everyone else is here, all right? I have no intentions of doing this purely out of the goodness of my heart."

"Weren't you complaining just a moment ago about having 'much better things to do'?" Patchouli muttered with a covert smirk.

Alice shot her back a silencing glare, but didn't say anything. Though Alice and Patchouli had a long history of disliking each other from about the moment they first met, Alice decided now would not be the best time to start a conflict.

"_Anyway_," Yukari said after clearing her throat, "now that the five of us have all gathered and settled down, wouldn't it be a good idea to get started on finding the answers to this mystery? We've only got less than five hours to do it, after all."

Alice, Marisa, and Yukari each jumped off the table and took a seat in one of the chairs surrounding it. Just as Patchouli was standing up to explain all the details of their situation, Reimu interrupted her.

"Before we start," she said, "shouldn't we make a name for our group? It would be kind of difficult to tell others we meet that we're part of 'The Group of Youkai and Humans that Yukari Brought by Force to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's Library', right?"

Yukari rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right," she replied. "A name would be useful for our organization. How about… 'The Youkai of Boundaries and Her Four Lowly Subordinates'?"

"More like 'Yukari Is So Damn Full of Herself and Needs an Ego Check'," Alice scoffed, promptly receiving a sharp whack to the head from Yukari's parasol. "Ow!" she whined in pain. "I was just kidding." Shanghai, Alice's favorite doll, immediately came to her side and started rubbing the sore spot on her head that was beginning to form.

"We could just do something simple, like 'The Gensokyo Girls' Alliance'," suggested Reimu. "It could be GGA for short."

"That sounds fine to me, ze," Marisa said. The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.

"Well then," said Patchouli, "it's settled. Let's begin our investigation of Remilia's supposed killer as the GGA at once."

* * *

><p>While the five girls of the newly-formed GGA were planning in the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, another five girls were also meeting on the shores of the Misty Lake about a quarter of a mile from them. While each of them appeared to be quite different in terms of appearance, they all looked very young and immature with wide, childish eyes.<p>

One of the girls, a fairy with short icy-blue hair, a dark blue dress and matching hair bow, and icicle-shaped wings, proudly stood on her feet and looked at the rest of the rest of them.

"Thanks for coming to the latest meeting of Team ⑨ of the strongest and smartest mischief makers for justice!" She threw her left hand into the air. "Now raise your right hand and repeat after me: 'Eye am the strongest'!"

The phrase was repeated by a chorus of high-pitched voices as the rest of the girls eagerly repeated the very false statement.

"I think all 9 of us are here, but we're gonna take role call anyway just in case," said the fairy. "So, is Daiyousei here?"

A green-haired fairy wearing a short blue dress, a yellow ribbon tying up a ponytail in her hair, and elaborate golden wings cautiously raised her hand. "Yes I am, Cirno," she said. "In fact, I'm pretty sure we're all here—"

"Rumia?" interrupted Cirno, calling out the next name. This time, a blonde-haired youkai with deep red eyes, a black vest and skirt, and a small red bow in her hair called out, keeping her arms stretched out along her sides and perpendicular to her body like usual.

"That's me!" she said. "And I'm hungry! You don't have any people around to eat, do ya?"

"Nope," answered Cirno. "But there's those frogs I froze earlier today. Anyway, how about Mystia Lorelei?"

"I'm here," confirmed a girl who had long fuchsia hair, a brown cap with feathers atop it, a dress of the same color decorated with small bows, and long white wings coming out of her back. "If you want some, Rumia, I could sell you some of my awesome lamprey."

"Great! That works out good," said the ice fairy. "Wriggle Nightbug?"

The last girl who had not spoken stood up. She was a shorter youkai with messy green hair, antennae shooting out of her head, a white shirt with baggy blue shorts, and a long red cape tied to her back. If her friends didn't know her well, they might have mistaken her for a boy. "Yup," she said.

Cirno quickly did a head count and counted the numbers on her fingers. She started frowning and threw her hands up in the air. "There's only four of us here! Where's the last one?"

"Um, Cirno," started Daiyousei quietly, "I think you forgot—"

"Nobody's ever skipped out on a Team ⑨ meeting before!" shouted Cirno. "I don't believe it! I'm gonna personally cryo-freeze whoever did it!"

"Cirno, I don't think you counted—" said Daiyousei again.

"Not now, Dai-chan! Can't you see I'm trying to figure out who's missing so I can beat them up?"

"Did you count yourself, Cirno?" pressed Daiyousei.

"Of course I did! I mean… uh…" Cirno started counting on her fingers again and this time reached five. "Ah hah! Daiyousei the smartest figured out the answer to this mind-boggling puzzle!"

"Yeah! Great job, Dai-chan!' cheered Rumia. Daiyousei shook her head and smiled slightly. Even though her intelligence was no match for others like Patchouli, Alice, or Marisa, she was the only one of the group who wasn't a complete idiot.

"So, what are we gonna do tonight, Cirno?" asked Wriggle. She summoned a few fruit flies to her side and nonchalantly played with them with her finger; being the Firefly Youkai, she had complete control over insects.

"Hmm…" pondered Cirno, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "I didn't plan anything particular tonight. Got any ideas, guys?"

Mystia eagerly raised her hand. "Maybe we could do another one of those tricks where I confuse an unwitting victim with my singing voice and then convince them they'll be cured of their confusion if they buy my 'magic' lamprey? That always does wonders for the business!" she stated proudly.

"Nah," replied Rumia. "That's only really fun for you, cause you're the only one who sells lamprey." She smiled brightly. "Why don't we dig a really deep hole and then cover the opening with darkness and wait for some people to fall in. Then we eat 'em all up!" Rumia's ability to control darkness was a potentially devastating one, but her own physically weak state prevented her from causing much destruction with it; filling a place with darkness would make her target lose its vision along with her own.

"Sorry, but fairies don't eat humans," said Daiyousei. "I don't know if your idea would be fun for all of us."

Rumia shrugged and immediately returned her arms to the stretched-out position. "Fine. I guess I'll just go catch some later tonight. You got any ideas on what we should do?"

"Well, we could go for the tried and true method," the fairy said. "Sneaking into the Scarlet Devil Mansion and causing trouble with Sakuya the maid has always been a favorite among us. What do you think about trying that?"

"I don't think that's such a hot idea," said Mystia. "I heard Sakuya chewing out the gatekeeper just a few minutes before we got together. I think she said something about an intruder earlier, and to be on high alert and whatnot."

Wriggle shooed the fruit flies away and twirled one of her antennae on her finger. "That's kind of strange," she said. "Has that ever happened before, Cirno?"

Cirno frowned and continued to stroke her chin in thought. "No, I can't remember it ever happening. Usually Sakuya's just like beating up China 'cause she sleeps on the job and lets the magician girl in who steals books and stuff. I don't think she's ever been ordered to guard the place especially well before, though. Something strange has gotta be happening." She suddenly grinned widely and brought a finger into the air. "I've got it!"

"Got what, Cirno?" asked Rumia, who was staring at the ice fairy with a blank expression on her face. "I kind of lost track of what you were saying about five sentences ago."

"That's what we're going to do tonight!" announced Cirno. "We're gonna find out what's up with the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And then we'll either prank them or help them out, depending on what's going on!"

Mystia clapped her hands and cheered for this plan. "Brilliant idea, Cirno! It looks like you've got some competition in the brains, Dai-chan!" Daiyousei shrugged and smiled nervously, afraid that this statement would cause Cirno to challenge her to another "smartness contest", which was painful to watch and more painful to participate in.

Cirno, however, just pointed towards the looming mansion that lay before them. "Well, if nobody objects, our mission is clear! Let's go and do what Team ⑨ does best: organized mischief!" She jumped high into the air and let her icicle wings carry her towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Mystia followed suit and also took to the skies, while Rumia and Wriggle eagerly ran off into the same direction. Daiyousei, being the most careful of the bunch, took a quick look around the darkness between Misty Lake and the Scarlet Devil Mansion before following her friends. Having such a cautious attitude was a very wise and fortunate trait of the young fairy, as it would help her survive against some of the dangers that might lie on the horizon.

* * *

><p>"All right," said Sakuya in a firm voice. "Are we clear with what you have to do, Meiling?" She looked down at the red-hair gatekeeper in a short green dress and matching hat, who looked back up at her sheepishly.<p>

"Perfectly clear, Sakuya," Meiling quickly replied. "I'm going to stand here until midnight with complete attention. If any intruders come near here, regardless of who they are, I will stop them. If they refuse to back down, I'll swiftly defeat them. As long as I stand, nobody will enter the Scarlet Devil Mansion uninvited!"

Sakuya gave a quick nod and smile. "Good," she said. "I didn't think I needed to tell you your job again, but with that threatening letter, we can't be too careful. By the way, don't forget that 'complete attention' doesn't mean 'looking awake while actually taking a nap'. I know you love resting your eyes, but if you happen to do that tonight… I wouldn't be surprised if I 'accidentally' trip and drop knives in the process that just happen to fall into the closed eyelids."

Meiling, who was well aware of how scary Sakuya could become when angry, gave a forced chuckle. "O-of course. I won't sleep a wink! Besides, I never do that on the job. When it looks like I'm sleeping, I'm actually tending to the beautiful gardens along the gate…" She paused as Sakuya seemed to be reaching into the inner linings of her dress to pull out a knife. "…I-in my dreams. But I promise I'll stay awake tonight."

"Make sure that you do," replied Sakuya with an icy tone of voice. As she saw that Meiling was slightly shivering in fright under her shadow, she tried to comfort the gatekeeper. "It's not really so much that _I_ would be pissed if you failed this task. I just want to make sure Miss Remilia doesn't get a reason to give you one of her 'specialized punishments'."

This attempt to comfort Meiling only made her even more terrified. "Oh… oh my god!" she wailed. "Not that! I-I'll stay completely alert for the next four hours! I'll do the entire night! I'll even plant some new, exquisite flowers in the garden!"

Sakuya sighed and slapped her forehead. "Relax," she said. "People aren't going to take a gatekeeper seriously if she looks like she's going to crumble at any second. I'll see to it that Miss Remilia stays happy and doesn't punish you if you stay active on your post until midnight." This made Meiling's shivering stop, though she still appeared to be frightened at the prospect Sakuya had suggested. Having mostly cleared things up with Meiling, Sakuya began to walk back through the mansion courtyard that was beautifully decorated with all sorts of colorful flora. Just as she was walking on the white stone path that lead back to the door, she found herself face-to-face with a very anxious fairy maid who had burst from the front door.

"Sakuya! Sakuya! Sakuya!" shouted the fairy repeatedly. "There's something… you gotta… it's terrible… we need…" Sakuya started to grumble under her breath about the incoherent fragments the fairy was trying to say and the frustrating experience she just had with Hong Meiling; a vein in her forehead began to overfill with blood. As the fairy did not notice the growing rage that Sakuya was experiencing, she continued to speak nonsense and feed the blazing fire. "If you don't… it might… she won't be able to… come quick right now… don't forget the pads…"

"ENOUGH!" roared the head maid in a voice so loud that Suika Ibuki, miles away and far underground, could hear easily.

"Eh?" said the oni, looking up curiously at the ceiling of the dark, dank, and dripping cave she was entering to get to the Ancient City at the echoing shout. "Are those voices in my head talking again?" She grinned at that idea. "Nah, who am I kidding. Voices inside the mind can't happen; they don't exist. But it would be pretty cool if they did. I could have conversations with myself that would keep me from feeling lonely on long trips like this one!" Suika took a big gulp of sake and continued to cheerfully talk out loud about having conversations with herself as she wandered further underground.

Sakuya threw a wide spread of knives all around her to blow off some steam, and then grabbed hold of the terrified fairy by the collar. "For god's sake, I don't have time for your stupid antics! Just say the damn statement!"

The poor fairy who received the brunt of Sakuya's anger was nearly in tears, but she managed to compose herself long enough to answer the maid. "W-w-well," she stammered, making sure to say every word correctly, "I was just coming back from the basement after giving Flandre her breakfast when I heard multiple explosions and giggling below me. It seemed as though she was trying to get rid of a certain stress. I know that you said Flandre tends to do that, but from what you told me about her power and personality…" She paused for a second and took a deep breath. "I just thought you might want to know this!" she shouted with a burst of words before flying back into the mansion as fast as her small wings could take her.

Sakuya watched the fairy fly away until the door shut behind her, obscuring her from view. "I'm not _that_ frightening to the little insects, am I?" she asked herself with an amused smile. "Well, in any case, I guess I've got to go check on Flandre and make sure everything's all right with her."

"Excuse me, Miss Sakuya?" said Meiling, who was cautiously approaching the maid. "I couldn't help but overhear your little… err… 'talk' with that fairy maid. If you're going to calm Flandre down, could I maybe do that instead? Flandre and I have a very close friendship, you know, and I'm pretty sure she'll settle down if I ask her to. Plus, it always brightens my day when I get a chance to see the cute little rascal!"

Meiling's attempt to do something useful was completely lost on Sakuya, who just stared at the gatekeeper with a very tired look on her face. "Hong Meiling," she whispered in an exasperated voice, "were you listening to a single word that I've been telling you for the past five minutes? I'm pretty sure that I said 'guard the gate until midnight', not 'go ahead and visit the little vampire mistress because you feel like it'. Just do the job you've been given, please. I'm sure you don't want me to completely lose it and start chasing you and all the other Scarlet Devil Mansion inhabitants around with a look of death on my face, right?"

Meiling looked very disappointed and sad at the rejected proposal, but she nodded. "All right. Make sure you're not too hard on Flandre, okay? I know she has the ability to destroy anything, but that doesn't mean she's not a little girl whose feelings can get hurt."

"Of course," replied Sakuya. "I treat Flandre just as I do my mistress. You don't need to worry about that." The two members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion staff parted ways after that, and Sakuya walked through the front door, proceeding toward the basement.

* * *

><p>"So… now that we've gotten the pleasantries out of the way, how do we go about finding the identity of this 'patriot'?" asked Reimu, who impatiently tapped the incriminating letter with a finger. She, Alice, and Marisa were all sitting on the same side of a large table in the middle of the library, while Patchouli and Yukari were seated on the other side. Four of the girls hummed thoughtfully as they tried to figure out an answer to the question, while Marisa just laughed at them with a mischievous smirk on her face.<p>

"Well?" asked Alice. "What's so funny, Marisa?"

"The fact that I'm the one who figured out the answer before all the rest of you, ze!" replied Marisa with a triumphant grin. "It's simple, really. All we gotta do is find out who brought the letter to Remilia's room. That person has to be either closely tied with whoever wrote the letter, or the one who wrote it in the first place!"

"Great," replied Reimu sarcastically. "How the hell can we do that?" Patchouli looked up from the papers she was reading and coughed softly.

"It might be a lot easier than you'd imagine," she said, turning her head toward the door. "Koa!"

In a second, Koakuma dashed to the librarian's side, carrying a stack of papers with tables on them. "Here you go, Mistress!" she said with a happy smile on her face, handing all the papers to her mistress.

"Thank you, Koakuma," said Patchouli. "You're dismissed." The demon merrily dashed back to the library door and exited it, not bothering to make sure it didn't close with a loud sound.

"Care to share with us what you have there, Patchouli?" asked Yukari, eyeing the papers the librarian held in her hands.

"These are the record sheets that we use whenever guests come over," explained Patchouli while distributing one paper to each of the girls. "When someone assumed to not be an intruder passes through the front gate, Hong Meiling writes their name down, the time they entered, and for what reason. Most of the sheets are archived in Section GK of the library, but these are the ones from today."  
>"So if anyone unusual is written on these papers, we can assume that they might have something to do with delivering the letter," realized Alice, who began to quickly scan the sheet she had been given.<p>

"Exactly," agreed Patchouli. The girls began to read through what had been given to them; Marisa softly read the columns out loud to herself as she made her way to the bottom.

"Hmm," she murmured. "Eirin Yagokoro came at 2:45 P.M. to deliver Patchouli's asthma medicine. Lily White arrived at 3:04 P.M. for a job interview with Sakuya. Marisa Kirisame showed up at 3:22 P.M. 'presumably stealing books from Voile'—well that's pretty inaccurate, ze."

"Is it just me, or does this one seem a bit strange?" announced Yukari. "'Tewi Inaba; 4:55 P.M.; appointment with Patchouli Knowledge'." She looked to her left where Patchouli sat. "Did you actually have such an appointment take place?"

"I can personally confirm that I did not," said Patchouli, looking carefully at the mentioned entry on Yukari's sheet. "I haven't seen the rabbit at all today, or even this month." She stared at the shrine maiden and magician seated across from her with a small smile on her face. "Well, though we might be mistaken, it seems as though Tewi would be a good lead to follow up on to find the source of this letter. So, who is going to go to Eientei to bring her here for questioning?"

All eyes were on the two usual incident-solvers, who would travel long distances in order to resolve problems in Gensokyo in the past. "Don't look at me!" said Marisa. "I'd be happy to just stay in this warm library and help Patchouli with any informational leads that might arise, thank you very much."

The girls turned their attention to Reimu, who firmly shook her head. "No thank you. That strange bamboo forest made my head spin the last time we had to go there. Pick someone else, why don't you?"

"There isn't anyone else," remarked Alice. "Patchouli has asthma (or pitiful strength, perhaps) that keeps her from going outside, Yukari can't be trusted to go off on her own, and I'm not dressed in my outdoors outfit. I didn't think I'd be snatched from my house and brought into Patchouli's library when I got dressed today." She smirked at Yukari, who simply glared back behind her paper fan.

"Damn it," Reimu complained. "Is that 1000 yen you promised me really worth it, Yukari?" She turned to Marisa. "Well, if I'm going to have to journey to Eientei, I'm not going to do it alone. You're coming with me, Marisa."

"No can do, ze," replied Marisa with a smug smile. "Go with Alice or somebody; I'm staying here."

Reimu countered the smug smile with one of her own. "Very well. I guess I'll have to share all the treasure I steal from Kaguya's mansion with Alice. It's a shame you can't come and get some of them too, Marisa."

The Ordinary Magician scowled. "You just had to play hardball, didn't you? Fine; you win. I'll go with you to find Tewi."

"Well, if that's settled, you two might as well get going so you don't waste any more time bickering like little children," said Yukari. "It's not like we have all the time in the world to bring Tewi back here."

"Yukari's right, Marisa," said Reimu. "Let's go already!" The shrine maiden and her best friend strolled out of the library, laughing and playfully shoving each other along the way.

* * *

><p>Sakuya took a deep breath as she stood in front of the magically-enforced door to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement. While she knew Flandre meant no harm, it was almost impossible for anyone besides Meiling to talk with the vampire and not feel nervous. Releasing the breath she had built up, she reached into a pocket and produced the crystalline key that resembled one of the colorful shards of Flandre's wings. In a quick motion, she inserted the key into the great brass lock and turned it, making the door slowly creak as it opened.<p>

Sakuya poked her head into the dark room that opened before her. She saw all sorts of rubble strewn around the floor, some of it still smoking from being recently exploded. However, there was no sign of the girl moving about the room.

"Miss Flandre?" she called. "Miss Flandre, are you here? It's me—"

"Sakuya!" squealed a childish voice as Flandre leaped out from the darkness and latched herself onto one of Sakuya's legs. "Sakuya! I'm so happy you're here! I thought that you guys had forgotten all about it, but now I know you remembered!" The blonde vampire tightly hugged Sakuya's waist, causing the maid, surprised by this affection, to sheepishly pat her on the head.

"Of course," said Sakuya. "Now, apparently one of the fairy maids told me that you were playing with your toys rather roughly. Is anything the matter, Miss Flandre?"

Flandre laughed and casually shrugged her shoulders. "I was just kind of upset 'cause I thought you didn't remember what tomorrow is. But now that you're here, I can clearly see that's not true!" She happily started to rub her cheek against Sakuya's leg, causing Sakuya to grow very nervous as she quickly tried to remember what Flandre was talking about. "So, is Remi coming down, too?"

"Not at the moment, Miss Flandre," said Sakuya, making things up as she went along. "Your sister is really busy at the moment with a pressing matter. I'm sure she'll be down here in a few hours, though."

"Okay!" said Flandre agreeably. "I can wait patiently for as long as she needs 'cause I'm a big girl now!" She grinned proudly before looking up eagerly at Sakuya. "So, what are you gonna give me?"

Sakuya frowned. "Give you? I'm not sure what you mean, Miss Flandre."

Flandre laughed again. "I know you're not supposed to tell me, but it's okay. I wanna know!"

"I'm sorry. I'm just not sure about what you're referring to," replied Sakuya cautiously.

Flandre's smile began to fade, and her face got replaced with a quizzical look. "What are you talking about, Sakuya? It's the main part! Unless…" Her expression began to darken. "Sakuya, were you lying when you said you remembered?"

"C-certainly not, Miss Flandre," answered Sakuya a bit too quickly.

Flandre glowered with a look of slight instability in her eyes. "Yeah, you were lying! Forgetting is bad enough, but lying to cover for it? That's such a naughty thing to do, Sakuya!"

"I-I-I'm so sorry, Miss Flandre!" apologized Sakuya profusely. "Really, I am! I simply didn't want to kill the happy smile you had on your face. Please forgive me!"

Flandre smirked at the maid, her eyes still reflecting a sinister image. "Really. For someone who's so good at changing time stuff, you sure do forget important stuff! How forgetful do you need to be to lose track of the 500th birthday of your dear Flandre?"

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** So ends the second chapter. Reimu, Marisa, and Alice have joined Patchouli and Yukari to help figure out who is behind this. Plus, tomorrow is Flandre's birthday, and she's half a millennium old! Will Reimu and Marisa find Tewi and learn the truth behind the matter from her? How is 500 year old Flandre different from the 495 year old one we know and love? Will Hong Meiling stay awake and guard the gate of the Scarlet Devil Mansion? What will Cirno and her gang do?

Please review, and be sure not to miss the next chapter of Temporal Quintessence!


	3. 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM

When Yuyuko Saigyouji sent her gardener Youmu Konpaku off to pick up an order she had placed at Kourindou, she had claimed that she would be very busy this evening. However, the extent of how "busy" she actually was could be debatable.

"'It was when I was fifteen when I first learned about the true nature of the land that would soon be my permanent residence'? That's too intangible and ambiguous. Maybe 'what the meaning of death would transform itself into'? No, that wouldn't work at all; this is a compelling story, not an analytical essay. Maybe I'll just skip that sentence for now." Yuyuko sat at her study desk holding a pen, surrounded by disorganized pieces of paper bearing her stationery design on them. The candle she was using as a light source in the dark Hakugyokurou was at a very short height, and it was starting to drip hot wax on the desk it was on. "Yukari never told me that writing a fantasy novel would be so difficult," she pondered. "I suppose that almost anything is hard to do when you're on an empty stomach, though." She gathered all the papers that had been written on and stacked them together, not bothering to make sure it was all organized in the right way. "Does it really take an hour to get to the Forest of Magic and back, especially if you can travel at the speed of 200 Yojana in 1 slash?" Yuyuko smiled distantly. "Youmu's probably off on another one of those pointless adventures of hers." She leisurely walked through the door of the study and down the dark, quiet hallway of the shrine. Taking a brief moment to retrieve the blue hat she had left on her bed, Yuyuko decided to get some fresh air to help inspire her mind by going outside.

Even, or perhaps especially, during the night the Netherworld was an alluring part of Gensokyo with its enchanting and otherworldly beauty. The gentle white glow from the countless spirits who called the Netherworld home softly reflected on the falling cherry blossoms to produce an effect akin to twinkling stars. The blue and violet ghostly butterflies that were beautiful in the daylight were even lovelier in the dark, mixing their colors with the white of the spirits to illuminate the land with multiple natural glows. As she walked out the front door of Hakugyokurou onto the wooden porch, Yuyuko paused for a moment or two to take in the beauty of the Netherworld before she sat down.

Sure enough, at the very edge of the visible horizon, Yuyuko could see the awaited girl accompanied by her marshmallow-shaped phantom making her way up the great flight of stairs that served as the centerpiece of the Netherworld. While Youmu usually greeted Yuyuko with either a polite smile or a neutral expression, she wore a very worried and distressed look on her face as she approached her ghost mistress.

"Ah, Youmu, you're finally here," called Yuyuko with a playful smile when Youmu was only a few meters away. "Did you have fun going off to wherever you went when you got sidetracked from your duties?"

"I did nothing of the sort," replied Youmu coldly as she looked away to avoid eye contact with her mistress. "I simply wanted to stroll instead of sprint and enjoy this fine evening. Is that so terrible?"

"Err, no," murmured a puzzled Yuyuko. "I just would have preferred it if you told me you were going to do this before you left, though. Those papers and the dinner you'll cook are essential parts of the work I'm trying to complete tonight." Youmu wordlessly handed the already-opened package of stationery to Yuyuko, who opened it again and briefly took a quick look at what was inside. "Good, good. These will do just fine."

"Pardon me, Lady Yuyuko… but why do you need so many sheets of stationery, anyway?" asked Youmu tentatively. Yuyuko looked up from flipping through her sheets and smiled.

"I was going keep it a secret," she said, "but I suppose I can tell you, Youmu. See, my good friend Yukari dropped a book from a boundary about a week ago here, and I decided to read it. The book was this intense fantasy novel about a group of adventurers that go off on a journey to destroy a wicked object of pure evil, and it quite amazing indeed. It inspired me to write my own fantasy novel so everyone in Gensokyo will be able to enjoy something like what I read." She held up the package of papers. "In order to write the first draft, I'm going to need lots of paper."

Youmu dubiously raised an eyebrow. "Is that really the case? Well, I don't suppose you'd mind if I took a look at what you've written so far, would you?"  
>Yuyuko chuckled with amusement. "If you want to take a look at a chaotic group of scribbles of dissatisfaction, be my guest. I'll certainly let you read it when I have something presentable, but it's not even close to that yet." As she was getting up from the porch to walk inside, Yuyuko noticed Youmu staring off into space in a random direction, something the serious and devoted gardener almost never did. "Would you like to share with me what's on your mind, Youmu? It's quite obvious you're bothered by something."<p>

Youmu's eyes lazily drifted towards her mistress, and she began to stare absentmindedly again. "I don't know what you're talking about," she replied quietly.

"Oh, please," laughed Yuyuko. "It doesn't take a magician to know when somebody has started acting vastly different than they were two hours ago. Plus, I've realized over the years that you're always upset whenever that delicious Myon of yours goes limp as it's doing right now. If something is the matter, you can tell me, Youmu; that's what friends do."

Youmu took a moment to ponder what to say next. "Lady Yuyuko, have you read tonight's edition of the Bunbunmau newspaper?"

Yuyuko dismissed that idea with a wave of the hand. "That filthy rag? I prefer to get my news from an accurate and reliable source that doesn't make up lies for everything." She paused. "Has Aya been bullying you by printing propaganda that lays waste to your good name or something?"

"No," replied Youmu with certainty. "Not me. You're probably right about it being a complete lie, but… the front page contained an article about a threatening letter Remilia Scarlet received this evening. Apparently someone in Gensokyo is aiming to murder her before midnight tonight."

"Why, that is terrible!" exclaimed Yuyuko. "Have any clues to finding the identity of this person been found?"

"The article said that no progress has been made yet. However, I found something very strange about the picture of the letter that was printed." Youmu stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. She looked at the concerned face of her mistress and friend Yuyuko whom she had trusted for years, and then at the sheets of paper in her arms that had the incriminating pattern printed on them. The image of the letter on which deadly words were written flashed in her mind. It occurred to her that if Yuyuko really was behind the plot, the ghostly princess may kill her right on the spot for having learned too much.

"Yes?" urged Yuyuko. "What about the picture of the letter?"

"The letter had, well…" Youmu began with uncertainty before shaking her head firmly. "I can't do this."

"You can't do what?" asked Yuyuko. "Youmu, you're making me a bit worried with this incoherent way you're talking."

"I can't stand around here for the rest of the night and do nothing. You are my mistress, and I hold the greatest respect for you, but if Remilia dies because I didn't step in, my conscience won't allow me to live." Youmu unsheathed her two swords and turned to face the edge of the Netherworld. "I have to go warn her. Please don't follow me, Lady Yuyuko."

"Youmu, snap out of it," commanded Yuyuko in a serious tone. "Until you tell me exactly why you're acting so strangely about this, I don't want you going anywhere." These words had no effect on the gardener, however, as Youmu closed her eyes and relaxed her mind. Before Yuyuko could do anything to stop her, she was already sprinting away at a speed to fast to see. Within a few seconds, she had cleared the great barrier in the clouds that served as the entrance to the Netherworld.

Yuyuko dropped the stack of papers she was carrying on the ground and began to pursue her gardener with a speed that, though impressive by human standards, was not even close to Youmu's speed. "I suppose dinner will have to wait for the moment," she murmured to herself. "I hope that this is all just a silly misunderstanding on Youmu's part." Yuyuko's idea of the situation she and Youmu were being thrust into, though hopeful, would soon not be further from the truth.

* * *

><p>In the minutes that went by between when Sakuya left the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion promising to send Remilia in her place per Flandre's request and when Remilia actually arrived, Flandre had time to sit in the darkness and contemplate what was currently going on. Lying on her back on the small cot in the basement, she stared at the picture that hung on the opposite wall. While it was well over four-hundred years old, the depiction of the Scarlet sisters within it was physical identical to how they appeared now, being immortal vampires. Flandre noted, however, that the way she and Remilia were happily embracing each other with joyous smiles on their faces in the picture would never happen nowadays.<p>

_After all_, she thought to herself, _if Remi still loves me, why am I forced to stay in the basement like a slowly decomposing antique made to be forgotten? I suppose I just don't understand it_.

For the next minute or so, Flandre looked up at the dark and filthy ceiling that was covered with cobwebs until a sudden knock on the door brought her back to reality.

"Flan, it's me. May I come in?" called a voice from the other side of the door. Although Flandre knew who the voice belonged to from whom she had asked Sakuya to bring, it sounded foreign and unrecognizable to her.

"Go right ahead, Remi," replied Flandre apathetically. "You're the one who has the key, of course." The response she received was the sound of the lock turning and the great door being thrown open with little effort. Just as with her voice, Flandre recognized Remilia's eternal appearance as she stepped in but found the gaze she was receiving to be completely unfamiliar.

"Sakuya said you wanted to see me," said Remilia. "So, what can I do for you, Flan?"

"Do you happen to know what tomorrow is, Remi?" asked Flandre. It was difficult to see in the darkness of the basement, but a drop of sweat began to form on her forehead as she braced herself for what would be an inevitably unpleasant conversation.

"Of course," replied Remilia casually, walking to the cot to sit down next to her sister. "It's the day that you turn 500. What about it?"

"Sakuya told me you never mentioned it to her before. Is that true?" Sitting up, Flandre's wings twitched slightly from behind her as she made an unspoken vow to try to not get upset with Remilia.

"Yes, that's right," confirmed Remilia. "I was planning on telling her and Patchouli about it tomorrow. Then, the three of us were going to buy or make you a few little presents and Sakuya would bake a cake. It would be a quiet birthday party we could hold right here in the basement. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?" She brought a hand around Flandre's back in a comforting manner, but Flandre simply inched away from her.

"Why can't we hold it upstairs in the main rooms of the mansion?" asked Flandre, struggling to keep her voice steady. "I haven't been there in hundreds of years, and I can't even remember what it looks like. Just one day of being allowed out of the basement wouldn't be so bad, would it?"

Remilia shook her head sadly and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Flan, but we've been over this many times. I can't let you out of the basement—"

"I know, I know," interrupted Flandre impatiently. "'Flandre, you're too powerful, and you can't control that power properly. If you start exploding everyone you see, you could cause a catastrophe. That's why you need to stay in the basement.' You've said that so many times, but hasn't it ever occurred to you that I might be old enough to have control over my massive destruction?"

Remilia looked straight into Flandre's glimmering eyes. "It's occurred to me many times, and I have hoped for it every day. But when I look at you, I still see a young child. You're simply still not old enough to handle the responsibility of living normally."

"Why is it that you're only five years older than me, Remi, and yet you think you're mature enough to handle _your_ powers?" said Flandre, her brow beginning to furrow. "I don't really think that's fair."

"This isn't about me, Flandre. This is about you," said Remilia with a hint of agitation on her voice. "I do possess some powers, but I can't just close my fist and have things explode. Besides, I'm responsible enough to handle my anger, not channel it into destruction if Sakuya happens to overcook my breakfast eggs or something. I'm also responsible enough to keep someone who would do that safely locked away where she can't make anything terrible happen."

"I would not destroy stuff over a spoiled breakfast!" snapped Flandre indignantly. "It's really annoying that you're sticking by a decision you made about five hundred years ago when I'm completely different from how I was back then. You're not even giving me a chance to prove how much I've grown up!"

"Oh? Well, let's say you were given a chance to live like a normal person. What would happen then?" said Remilia with rising anger. "First, you'd act super-happy. You'd go around and start 'playing' with the fairy maids, and then get bored when they all blow to smithereens. It wouldn't be long before others would hear of a mass extermination of fairies in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and they would get suspicious. Word would get out that the 'dirty little secret' has begun to live outside of the basement. Do you think people would be happy to hear that? Of course not! Reimu Hakurei would likely come here to seal you away again, if she doesn't do the same to me and all the staff here as well! End result: you'd be back in here again, many innocent people would be punished, and the reputation of this house would be in the toilet. How does that sound, Flandre?!"

Flandre opened her mouth to shout an infuriated reply, but suddenly stopped herself as a spiteful smile began to form on her face. "Okay. Now I understand what this is all about."

"You do?" replied Remilia doubtfully. "What are you getting at, Flandre?"

Flandre's smirk remained as she began to explain. "I might have massively destructive powers and a personality that doesn't match them well, but the real reason I'm stuck in here has nothing to do with that. You're just selfish, and you want the mansion and the services provided by the staff all to yourself. You don't want to share them with your younger sister, do you?"

This was able to set Remilia off in the greatest possible way, and her scarlet eyes began to glow like two ignited bonfires as she jumped to her feet. "Excuse me?! How dare you even—"

"Don't try denying it," interrupted Flandre, her mocking grin continuing to grow. "What did you want as a present when you turned 500, Remilia? Oh, yes, that's right: for the freaking _sun_ to stop shining during the day! You made Sakuya cover this entire land in a red mist just so you didn't have to use a damn parasol to walk outside! As for my 500th birthday, you're throwing me the smallest of parties possible in a dingy, old room like this. It sounded like you weren't even going to invite the one who might be my only true friend around here, Hong Meiling! Hmm, does that sound selfish to you?"

"Shut up, Flandre!" screamed Remilia with the loudest voice she could muster. "Just shut up! There's someone who wants me dead tonight, and all you're concerned with is equality among siblings? Why don't you grow up, you little brat!"

"Whatever," chuckled Flandre darkly. "If you're not going to own up to your selfish attitude, we're done here. Get the hell out of my basement."

"That's the first reasonable idea you've said here!" snarled Remilia, who stormed over to the door and slammed it shut behind her as loud as she could. After a second, the door opened a crack and Remilia stuck her head back in. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot," she said sardonically. "Happy birthday, little sister!" The door slammed shut again, and as a result the picture of Flandre and Remilia happily hugging on the wall fell to the ground. Flandre made no attempt to hang it up again. Remilia, in her state of rage, did not remember to lock the door as she stomped up the stairs to the ground floor.

* * *

><p>The Bamboo Forest of the Lost, as its name implied, was a place in which it was incredibly easy to lose one's way. Even though Reimu and Marisa had already navigated through it once before, they still found it nearly impossible to explore, especially in the dead of night.<p>

"Is it just me, or have we been walking around in circles, ze?" said Marisa, stopping her walking gait and scratched the top of her head in confusion.

"Don't ask me," replied Reimu, who also stood still and looked all around the dark, dense forest in hopes of finding a landmark. "I get disoriented just trying to find my way across the Misty Lake."

Marisa leaned against one of the bamboo stalks casually. "Maybe we should have asked Mokou for directions before just charging in here, huh?"

Reimu snorted. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's still pissed off at us for trying to kill her last time. Unless you wanted to get your hat incinerated, we're better off this way."

"Figures that the only one who could help us would do that," laughed Marisa ironically. "Well, what are we going to do now?"

As Reimu and Marisa were discussing a way to get to Eientei, a young rabbit with snowy-white fur began to hop their way from behind a few thick bamboo stalks. It settled just a few feet from the girls and wriggled its nose curiously. Neither of them took notice of the rabbit at first, and it kept its gaze remained fixed on the two of them, interested about why two humans would be out here.

Just then, however, Marisa happened to turn around and spot the rabbit, which froze in place from being seen. "Hey, Reimu, look!" she said. "Maybe if we catch it, it will take us to Tewi!"

"It's worth a try," said Reimu. She bent down to eye level with the rabbit and smiled kindly. "Hi there, little guy. Can you show us where to find Tewi Inaba?" The rabbit remained frozen in place and didn't make any responsive gesture. Reimu extended her hand to the animal to show she meant no harm, but it only caused the rabbit to regain its mobility and quickly flee in the opposite direction.

"Damn it, Reimu!" shouted Marisa, who began to dash after the escaping rabbit. "We can't let it get away!" Instead of pursuing it, Reimu whispered a few words under her breath. Two orbs with yin-yang symbols on them began to materialize on either side of her body. From these, many carefully-aimed red bullets of pure energy were fired at the rabbit. As the bullets hit their target, the rabbit shrieked in shock and stopped where it was. Before it could recover from the surprise of the attack and continue running, Marisa closed in on the rabbit and scooped it up in her arms. "That worked out well," she admitted. "Okay, little fuzzy guy, say the way to Eientei, ze!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" shouted an angry, high-pitched voice that was approaching the two girls. "Just what do ya think you're doing with that poor rabbit, huh?" Out of the darkness of the bamboo forest came a young-looking girl with short, black wavy hair, a plain and pale pink nightgown, a carrot necklace, and white, floppy rabbit ears.

"Apparently doing something right, since it brought us to you, Tewi!" said Marisa proudly.

"I don't really see how shooting at an innocent rabbit would lead you to me," replied Tewi sarcastically. She stepped closer to Marisa and snatched the rabbit out of her grasp.

"Relax," said Reimu. "Those weren't my attack bullets; they just gave a gentle zap to surprise the target, not hurt them." She stood next to Marisa and looked Tewi in the eyes. "Anyway, we've found you, so let's get down to business, shall we?"

"All right, all right," said Tewi. "What do you need from me, you two?" She released the rabbit from her arms, and it scurried away into the dark forest.

"We want to know what you were doing in the Scarlet Devil Mansion this afternoon," said Reimu. "You apparently told Hong Meiling that you had an appointment with Patchouli Knowledge, but she claims she made nothing like that."

Tewi laughed merrily at this question. "Right," she said. "Even though I've been out playing in Mayohiga the entire day, I'm apparently recorded as having been in the Scarlet Devil Mansion? That's a good one!"

Reimu raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't make an appointment with Patchouli, and you weren't in the Scarlet Devil Mansion at all today?"

"Of course not," confirmed Tewi. "Why would I want to see that grumpy witch, anyway? Eirin is much smarter and nicer than she is."

Marisa spoke up. "Let's not forget that you have a history of being a chronic liar, Tewi. Got any proof of what you're saying, ze?"

"Not really," admitted Tewi. "I don't really see why it's such a big deal, though. What is this all about?"

Reimu explained to Tewi about the letter that Remilia Scarlet had received earlier that night. "We've been trying to track down who delivered it to her, and it seems like the evidence currently points to you, Tewi."

"That's ridiculous," scoffed Tewi. "I pull harmless pranks on people, not send them death threats! What kind of rabbit youkai do you think I am?"

"Well, you might be telling the truth, and you might not be," said Marisa. "If you come back with us to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, we can clear up this whole matter."

Tewi yawned and stretched her arms into the air sleepily. "I think I'll pass on that idea. I've had a busy day, and I was just heading back to Eientei to get some rest. How about we get this whole thing settled tomorrow?"

"That's not going to work," said Reimu. "We've only got until midnight to do this, according to the letter, so you have to come back with us now."

"Too bad," said Tewi. "I'm too tired to do anything right now, so I'm not going with you. Good luck on your investigation anyway, though."

As Tewi began to walk through the dark forest of bamboo, Marisa smirked and pulled out a small octagonal block of wood from her dress. "If that's the way it's going to be, then I guess I can say I tried using non-violence on her at first."

Reimu groaned and quickly ducked behind a thick and sturdy bamboo stalk. "You get way too much pleasure out of using that thing, Marisa."

"_Love Sign 'Master Spark'_!" shouted Marisa, and all hell broke loose at that moment. An incredibly wide and bright laser spanning every color of the rainbow was released from the block she held, and it lit up the night as it charged forward. Some of the bamboo stalks that were in its path burned to ashes, and others were simply uprooted and tossed to the side like weeds. The beam made its way to Tewi in an instant, and she was swept up into the brilliant laser as well. Her cry of shock only lasted for a second, as afterwards she promptly fainted in the face of the blinding laser. Though the Master Spark completed its purpose in a matter of seconds, it still remained bright for a little while longer and continued its deafening roar. Finally, the light and sound faded, and Marisa put the block away again. "As they say, 'If words are useless, just let a huge freaking laser speak for you, ze!'"

"Uh huh," said Reimu, coming back from behind the bamboo. "Way too much pleasure, Marisa."

The two of them walked forward toward the rabbit who had received the brunt of the attack. She was lying on her back and sleeping peacefully, her chest gently expanding and contracting to allow air to flow in and out. Just as Reimu was about to tell Marisa to pick her up, the two orbs that were still orbiting around her body began to glow violet.

"_Yukari to Reimu. Yukari to Reimu. Come in, Reimu,_" echoed a voice from the orbs. Reimu groaned again as she heard Yukari's annoyingly happy voice talking to her from a mile away.

"Don't tell me you've set up that communication system from when we solved the underground incident last month again, Yukari?" she guessed.

"_Precisely,_" Yukari replied. "_However, I didn't just set it up for you. I altered the boundary of truth and lies to make the statement that everyone in Gensokyo has communication devices be true. So…_"

The Hakkero block that Marisa had used to power the Master Spark began to glow violet as well.

"_Hello there, Marisa!_" said Yukari cheerfully, her voice echoing from the Hakkero.

"Oh boy," said Marisa unenthusiastically. "Now you'll be able to watch over everything we do. How great."

"_Sarcasm aside, you two seem to have found Tewi, which is good._"

"We did," said Reimu. "Marisa conveniently knocked her out with a Master Spark. We're going to bring her back to you now."

"_You might want to hold off on that for the moment,_" replied Yukari. "_If Marisa brings Tewi back here, then you can continue towards Eientei to visit Kaguya and Eirin, Reimu. I would be surprised if the two of them have nothing to do with this if Tewi is indeed behind the letter._"

"That would be fine, but I have no idea which way Eientei is. So I'll just be coming back too," replied Reimu a little too quickly.

"_Sorry, Reimu, but you're not getting off the hook that easily,_" chuckled Yukari. "_Just keep following in the direction that Tewi was going. You'll definitely reach Eientei that way._" Reimu silently swore under her breath, but Yukari just continued to laugh. "_In case you're wondering why I'm sending you off to do this instead of Marisa, there's really no reason. Well, maybe just the reason that your job as a shrine maiden is to do all the dirty work the rest of us don't want to do. All right, I'll see you back here shortly, Marisa. Good luck on your task, Reimu. Yukari out._"

* * *

><p>As Yukari finished speaking and let Reimu's yin-yang orbs and Marisa's Hakkero change back to their regular colors, she just managed to hear Reimu say "Damn it, Yukar—" before the ending of the conversation cut her cussing short. The television screen propped up on the table in front of her changed from showing the scene in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to static.<p>

"So that thing really lets you see stuff from far away, huh? Do we all get one?" asked Alice curiously, who was eagerly looking over Yukari's shoulder at the metal box.

Yukari shrugged and stifled a yawn. "I _could_ give everyone in Gensokyo one… but I don't really feel like it right now. Audio communication devices should be sufficient enough to get through this incident with. Besides, it might be a bit unnerving for some to be using technology that shouldn't be around for another hundred years or so."

"If we've still got about a hundred years before this machine is invented, how did you get one, Yukari?" asked Patchouli, who had briefly looked up from her book at the opposite side of the table to see what the youkai was doing.

Yukari gave a devious smirk and twirled her parasol innocently. "Let's just say… I'm a girl who is always ahead of her time."

"So, in other words, you basically stole one straight out of the hands of someone in the outside world, right?" guessed Patchouli with a deadpan tone.

"Don't put it that way; it makes me sound like quite the villainess when you do," said Yukari with a look of mock scorn on her face. Using the table as leverage, she pushed herself out of the chair and stood up to face Patchouli. "Anyway, there's something we need to get done now, Patchy."

"What's that?" asked Alice and Patchouli simultaneously; each looked at the other with surprised expressions as they heard each other say their same question.

"Just as you asked, I have brought in people you can trust to help solve this incident, Patchouli," said Yukari with a serious and determined look on her face. "Therefore, I think it's only fair if I bring in someone of my own who I can trust to protect me."

"A shikigami?" asked Alice. She set her Shanghai doll on the table and stood up as well to get a good look at what Yukari was going to.

"Not just any old 'shikigami'," scoffed Yukari, who walked forward a few paces to get into the open space in the center of the library. "No, I summon a youkai whose power and abilities far exceed all but my own. One who has lived in this world long enough to be able to do outrageously complex mathematical problems and know all sorts of tricks you wouldn't even imagine. She is the only one that I trust with my life, in fact. I summon… Ran Yakumo!"

A fifteen foot crack tied with two red ribbons formed in the air of the library, and it split open to reveal a dark void full of eyes. Yukari stood and smiled proudly at the gap she had created for several moments. However, nothing came out of it at all, and after a few seconds, she frowned and cleared her throat. "I said, 'I summon a youkai whose powers and abilities', yadda yadda. Ran Yakumo, come on out!" Once again, the portal did not release any creature at all. "What the hell? She always comes right to my side when I call for her."

"Maybe you should try asking for her without making such a brilliant intro for her," suggested Alice sarcastically while sitting back down.

Yukari, however, nodded. "Maybe she is a little self-conscious tonight for some reason," she agreed. "Okay, Ran. Please come out, for I need you around this evening." This time, the portal remained still for a couple of seconds before spitting out a young animal youkai onto the floor. She was a cat with two furry black tails, a simple red dress adorned with a yellow bow, and cat ears, one of which had a gold earring pierced through it. The youkai looked up with a dazed expression that quickly turned eager at the sight of Yukari. She took a moment to straighten the green hat that was lying crooked on her head of messy brown hair and then stood up to face the woman herself.

"Hi there, Mistress Yukari!" she said gleefully. "What's up?" Patchouli and Alice exchanged confused glances, and Yukari showed the same expression to the cat.

"What are you doing here, Chen?" she asked, closing the portal that had formed effortlessly with a single thought process. "I called for Ran."

Chen shrugged innocently. "Well, Ran wasn't home at Mayohiga, so when I saw you calling her through a gap, I thought I'd come instead. Ran always tells me that, as her shikigami, I should take up her duties when she's not around."

Yukari's brow furrowed slightly, and she lightly fanned herself with the paper fan she carried. "Ran isn't home? That's a bit worrying, for she never goes out without first telling me where she's going."

"Well, she was here this afternoon, so she couldn't have gone off too far," said Chen. She gave her left ear a quick scratch before looking around at everything else in the library. "So, what are we doing here in the Scarlet Devil Mansion with Patchouli and Alice, anyway?"

"We're trying to solve the mystery behind a certain incident that has found its way to Miss Remilia," Patchouli answered from her place at the table.

Chen's eyes lit up as she heard this, and she grinned widely. "Really? An incident? Wow, I've never helped solve an incident before! So, what are we gonna do? Beat up some bad guys, and then save Gensokyo?"

"Whoa. Slow down, kitty," said Alice flatly. "We're just trying to find suspects at this point. Until we find any solid evidence pointing to perpetrators, there won't be any beating up."

While Chen lost a bit of the enthusiasm in her eyes, she still looked excited enough. "All right. This is still going to be really fun, though. Right, Mistress Yukari?"

Yukari, whose attention was focused on something other than the cat shikigami, slowly turned back to Chen. "Uh… yeah," she answered absentmindedly. "I just wish I knew where Ran went."

Patchouli coughed quietly to bring the attention back to her. "I suppose if we've got time left over after stopping the author of the letter, we could devote some time into finding Ran."

"That would be excellent," said Yukari, a grateful look in her eyes. "Anyway, Marisa should be coming back here any minute now, so let's go and greet her, Chen." The boundary youkai walked gracefully to the door of the library, with the cat shikigami energetically bouncing behind her.

* * *

><p>As Youmu reached the foggy shores of the Misty Lake, she stopped her incredible speed for a moment to peek behind her. While it appeared as though she had lost Yuyuko in the great journey across Gensokyo to reach the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she couldn't be sure. The ghost princess had a habit of hiding herself in the shadows until Youmu would pass by, at which point she would leap out and make the gardener suffer a near-heart attack.<p>

"I guess it doesn't really matter now that I'm here whether she's caught up to me or not," she mused. Even though she was a human with no wings, Youmu had no trouble flying for short distances at an altitude very close to the ground. It contradicted the natural laws of physics, but in a land like Gensokyo, the laws of physics were the unnatural ones. After taking a few steps back to give herself room, Youmu started up another supersonic dash that would allow her to clear the lake and reach the island in the center without even getting her feet wet. Letting only the velocity of the dash carry her, she was able to touch the grass and dirt on the island with her feet in a matter of seconds. Sneaking forward through the relatively empty meadow, Youmu quickly found herself staring right at the imposing mansion itself. At this point, she took another opportunity to observe what lay in front of her: the gatekeeper to the mansion Hong Meiling standing alert at her post, and her mistress's friend Yukari Yakumo nonchalantly sitting on the steps to the front door with her shikigami's shikigami Chen.

"Yukari!" shouted Youmu before she had a chance to stop herself. While it got Yukari's attention, it also made Meiling turn her way and spot her.

"Halt!" boomed Meiling in a loud, intimidating voice. "Identify yourself! If your intention is to invade the mansion and put my mistress's safety in danger, I assure you that it is an impossible and futile objective."

"N-no, that's not why I'm here," mumbled a frightened Youmu who drew back from the gate. "I just wanted to inform Remilia of a possible link I fund to the death threat letter."

Meiling walked right to Youmu and sized her up. "You don't seem to be exhibiting any threat," she declared, "but my statement remains, Miss Youmu. You cannot enter the mansion."

Youmu backed away a couple of paces, but bravely stared up into the eyes of the taller girl. "I must insist on entering. This is critically important. If Remilia doesn't learn of it, it may be her undoing."

Meiling folded her arms and returned the stare. "Sorry, but I must adhere to the orders I've been given. If you truly wish to enter, you can do so by defeating me first. Not that I would let myself lose, of course."

Without blinking, Youmu pulled her two swords out of their sheathes and brandished them rapidly at the gatekeeper. "If battling is the only way you'll let me enter, then I'd be happy to oblige."

"Very well," said Meiling, raising her arms up in an attacking position. "Prepare yourself for the most terrible pain you'll ever experience!"

Before either of them could land a blow, however, they were both distracted by the sound of Yukari chuckling with amusement. "The China gatekeeper Meiling versus the ghostly gardener Youmu in a battle of physical power? I seem to have extraordinary luck in witnessing the most epic battles in Gensokyo!" she proclaimed. "However, I think we're a little pressed for time today, and a fight wouldn't be a very sensible idea." She walked up to Meiling and put a hand on the gatekeeper's shoulder. "I'll vouch for Youmu, all right? Please be a dear and allow her to come inside. If she really has found a new link to the letter, it will be very helpful to us. And, if she's lying, I can just kill her myself." Watching Youmu's mouth fall to the ground, she laughed merrily to herself again. "Only kidding, Youmu. Probably, that is."

Meiling scratched the top of her head in confusion before finally dropping her battle stance. "Oh," she said sheepishly. "Well, if you need her to help you on the investigation, Yukari, I guess she can come in." She turned to Youmu and smiled with a blush. "Heh, sorry for impeding you like that."

Youmu returned her swords to their containers and curtly nodded. "It's fine," she said briskly, before turning back to Yukari. "If you're indeed the main person working on this operation to stop it, Yukari, then you really ought to know about this as soon as possible. After all, I'm pretty sure I was followed by Yuyuko, and she could be hiding around here and listening to us as we speak."

Yukari shot her a questioning glance as she twirled her parasol in two fingers. "Why would that be a bad thing, Youmu?"

"It shouldn't be on a regular occasion," responded the haunting voice of the ghost princess. Yuyuko Saigyouji walked out from behind one of the pillars lining the gate door of the mansion and approached the two. "Long time no see, Yukari," she greeted the youkai with a friendly smile. She then looked at Youmu with a stern expression on her face, something that rarely ever appeared. "Anyway, you were about to explain what link you've found. Go ahead; you've denied me of it long enough."

Knowing that she would not be able to handle two of the strongest girls in Gensokyo fighting her at the same time if she did not answer, Youmu wordlessly pulled out the newspaper article from that evening, a blank sheet of stationery she had kept, and the receipt for the order Rinnosuke had given to her before she left his shop. Looking away, she shoved all three of the items in Yukari's hands.

"Hmm… okay," said Yukari, carefully analyzing each of the pieces of paper she had been given. "It seems pretty obvious that little Youmu here saw the picture of the letter in the article and suspected you, Yuyuko, of being behind it after you purchased a great quantity of stationery with the same pattern as the one in the picture."

"Why, that is absurd!" said Yuyuko, appalled. "I would never try to murder an innocent girl; that's not the type of killing ghost I am. Besides, not only do I use those papers for just writing my story and nothing else, it would be very stupid for me to use my unique stationery to write such an important letter, wouldn't it?"

Youmu looked down at her feet, and Myon hung its tail downward. "I… guess it would be," she admitted with a face as red as a ground cherry. "I just wanted to make sure Remilia would stay safe tonight, and helping out with a possible lead seemed like a way to do my part. I apologize, Lady Yuyuko."

Yuyuko's disconcerted expression changed back into her usual warm smile. "I accept your apology, Youmu." She patted the gardener on the head and lightly ruffled up her hair. "Just don't disobey me again, all right? You can trust me to help you with any problems you might have."

Before Youmu could reply an affirmative answer, she was interrupted by another loud voice. "Hey there, everybody! I brought back a rabbit!" Marisa, who was riding her broom with a groggy Tewi Inaba in the night sky above the mansion, tilted her aim downward to aim towards the courtyard ground. As soon as she her broom become parallel and only a few inches off of the ground, Marisa hopped off, dragging the rabbit behind her by the wrist.

"Hey, Tewi!" said Chen, who was enthusiastically watching what was going on. Tewi, however, only replied with an incomprehensible grunt.

"She saw the power of love in the form of a giant seven-colored laser," explained Marisa after she saw the confusion in Chen's eyes.

"Now that our prime suspect has been delivered here, how about we all head inside for the questioning?" said Yukari. "You too, Yuyuko; the sooner we can officially clear you as innocent, the better." With no objections, the six of them walked up the path into the front door of the mansion. Meiling, who was watching the whole scene with curiosity in her eyes, turned back to the night to look for intruders as she became alone again.

"No 'Hi, Meiling, how are you doing' from any of them?" she said to herself. "Gatekeepers get lonely, too."

* * *

><p>The back room of the library was primarily used for storage nowadays, as Koakuma had grown out of it a while ago and now slept in an official bedroom in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. However, its dim light from the single hanging lightbulb and cramped layout gave it the perfect atmosphere for an interrogation room, as its purpose was at the moment.<p>

Tewi Inaba, who had finally gained her senses back, sat on a dusty wooden chair and faced Yukari, Yuyuko, Alice, and Chen (who received the recommendation that she should leave so she doesn't see her friend in this state, but wanted to stay by Yukari's side anyway).

"All right, Tewi," said Yukari. "We've got a little more than three hours before Remilia supposedly shall meet her death. So, we're going to want to get the answers as quickly as possible. As long as you comply, you'll be out of here before you know it if you're innocent. Understand?" Tewi chose not to answer verbally, but nodded her head all the same.

"Good," said Alice. "So, why don't you start by telling us why you were in the Scarlet Devil Mansion this afternoon?"

Tewi snorted. "I don't because I was never in here at all today. Not for a 'special appointment' with Patchouli, and certainly not to drop off a death threat."

Alice pursed her lips at the lack of an answer and pulled out the record sheets for 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM on that afternoon. "These are the official sheets that Hong Meiling uses to record the names of everyone who goes in the mansion and for what purpose. So, why does it list you as having entered the mansion at 4:55 for an appointment?"

Tewi shrugged and rubbed one of her ears between two fingers. "Because it's a piece of crap that someone doctored up to frame me? I don't care what a sheet of paper says about where I've been today; I spent the entire afternoon at Mayohiga playing with Chen."

"She's right! We were both playing at that time, and neither of us went anywhere near here until tonight," confirmed Chen.

"Now, Chen," said Yukari with a slightly condescending tone, "I know Tewi is your friend, but—"

"I'm not just covering for her, Mistress Yukari!" said Chen indignantly. "I'm telling the truth! If Ran comes back tonight, she can verify it."

Alice picked up the very letter Remilia had received earlier that day. "So, what do you know about this document, Tewi?"

"Nothing that you haven't told me, I swear," Tewi replied. She leaned forward in her chair to get a better look at the paper. "Hang on a second…"

"What? Did you see something strange about it?" asked Alice, who held it closer to Tewi so she could see it easier.

"Could it be…" Tewi absentmindedly wondered out loud.

"Yes?" pressed Yukari. "Don't leave us in the dark, Tewi!"

Tewi suddenly looked up with an angry scowl at all the girls who were looking down at her. "If this is your idea of a joke, you people have a sick sense of humor, and I'm not laughing!"

Alice looked questioningly at the rabbit. "Nobody is pulling a joke here. What are you so upset about?"

Instead of answering, Tewi reached into the folds of her dress and produced a small piece of paper. "Read this memo I was given today and see if anything jumps out at you," she said, with a remaining look of disbelief.

Yukari pulled the memo out of the rabbit's hands and read it out loud. "'Tewi – Don't forget to mail the prescriptions Eirin gave to you before you come home tonight. Signed, Reisen'," she said. "Ah, I think I get it now." Taking back the letter from Tewi's hands, she compared the two of them side by side.

"What are you getting at, Yukari?" asked Yuyuko, who was looking over her shoulder with interest.

Yukari pointed at various parts of both of the letters. "Take a look at how the capital Ts and lowercase Ys are written in both of the letters. In the former case, the Ts are drawn with a little bit of a hanging extension off of both edge of the horizontal top. In the latter, every y is written with a bit of a spiral on the tail. It's too much to pass off as just a coincidence. In fact, the overall handwriting appears to be completely identical to that written in the memo."

"So, the author of Remilia's death threat is Reisen Udongein Inaba!" concluded Chen with an excited cry.

"We can't be entirely sure of that, as it's not clear if Tewi is telling the truth or not, but it would seem that way," agreed Alice. "What's more, I'm almost certain that she wrote it out of her own volition."

"H-how can you be so certain of that?" demanded Tewi, her face flushing red as the idea of her fellow rabbit youkai being behind the letter began to sink in.

"If she were forced to write the letter," continued Alice, "she would undoubtedly be nervous, and thus her hands would shake and make the handwriting messy. The letter, however, has some of the neatest handwriting I have ever seen in my life; a hostage would never manage to write that neatly. We must assume that if Reisen is indeed the author of the letter, she either is willingly working with or is the mastermind herself."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** Three hours have passed since the beginning of the story, and the action is starting to heat up!

In this story, Chen and Tewi are not technically members of Team ⑨ like they sometimes are in other stories, but they are still good friends and are on generally good terms with Cirno and her friends.

Writing the argument between Flandre and Remilia was quite fun, as it reminds me of the fights that I would sometimes have with my older sister. None of ours ever escalated to the height that theirs' did, but they were still useful for inspiration.

In case Yukari's brief explanation of the communication system she set up seemed a bit confusing, here's the lowdown: everyone in Gensokyo now has a device that they can use to talk to others over long distance like a cell phone; usually, it's featured in their signature item. They can communicate with anyone else they've personally met, but not with those they haven't. Yukari also has the ability to watch what others are doing with her television, just as she did in the events of Subterranean Animism.

So, is Reisen indeed the author of the letter, and can she be stopped before it's too late if she is? Will the family bonds between Flandre and Remilia snap in the heat of the day? Where has Ran disappeared off to? What will Kaguya and Eirin think of two of their rabbits being under suspicion of being behind this plot?

Please review, and look forward to the next chapter of Temporal Quintessence!


	4. 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM

While Remilia Scarlet would always delight in showing others she had complete control over a situation, there were times in which even she would realize when a situation was beginning to grow serious. It was one of these times when Remilia decided to take a visit to the Voile Library to see her friend Patchouli and get an update on the investigation the GGA was holding.

"So," said Remilia as she flung open the door and took a seat in one of the comfy, padded chairs that Patchouli usually reserved for reading in, "three hours down, three hours to go, it seems. Let's hear what you've figured out, Patchy!" Sakuya remained at the door with her hands politely clasped in front of her, silently taking in all that was going on in the library. Held tightly in between her interlocked fingers were three knives with blue handles on them: Sakuya's traditional items of defense.

Patchouli arose from the table she was seated at with Marisa, Alice, and Youmu and slowly walked the few paces needed to reach the chair the vampire was sitting in. "Well, Miss Remilia," she said, "we don't seem to have a problem with finding suspects. The main issue we're struggling with is finding the evidence to determine who is lying and who is not."

Remilia rested her chin in one palm and drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair she was sitting in. "Go on," she told the librarian. "What suspects have you identified?"

Patchouli held up the letter that so many assumptions and theories had stemmed from. "As you are well aware," she said, "this letter you received this evening is the main piece of evidence we've been using to identify our list of suspects. The sole person to have bought stationery that comes in the pattern matching this letter is the ghostly princess of Hakugyokurou, Yuyuko Saigyouji. The only one who has been recorded on Hong Meiling's record sheets for an irregular reason we can't back up is the lucky rabbit of the Earth, Tewi Inaba. Lastly, from a memo Tewi was carrying, we identified the handwriting of the letter to come from the lunar rabbit, Reisen Udongein Inaba. The former two have vehemently denied having anything to do with this, and Reimu Hakurei is on her way to Eientei as we speak to find out what Eirin and Kaguya know about this plot and to bring back Reisen."

Remilia's drumming on the side of the chair began to incorporate a very complex beat as she concentrated harder on thinking. "So Yuyuko claims she didn't have a part in developing the letter despite it being written on her unique stationery, and Tewi says she was never here today at all, huh? Do you think they're telling the truth?"

Patchouli released a breath she had been storing and adjusted her nightcap. "Miss Remilia… at this point, I can't say with confidence whether I do or don't. On one hand, Yuyuko has a point when she says it would be quite foolish of her to write such an important letter on the identifying stationery, and Tewi has Chen backing up the alibi that she was playing in Mayohiga all day. On the other, Yuyuko has been known to be quite unpredictable at times; it's possible writing the letter on her stationery is part of some sort of reverse-psychology plot of hers. As for Tewi, we cannot forget that she has a history of being a liar and feigning innocence when it comes to taking the blame for her pranks. With Ran nowhere to be found, we can't verify Chen's support. Really, until we get Reisen in here, nothing is certain."

Remilia played with the frilly pink cuff around one of her wrists and blinked twice. "Have you verified with China that the records stating that Tewi entered the mansion are indeed legitimate? I'd say it seems a little fishy that Tewi would try to deny a written fact unless the fact isn't true itself."

Patchouli let a small smile escape from her stoic expression. "That sounds like a very good course of action. Thank you, Remilia. I shall keep you informed of everything we find out."

"Well, if that's that, I'll be heading back to the main hall. Good luck, Patchy," said Remilia as she rose from the chair and strolled back to the door where Sakuya was still waiting patiently. "Let's go, Sakuya. We ought to make sure we don't get in the way of all the girls working to save me from certain doom. Plus, I want to check on Flandre and make sure she's not too shaken up from the little… dispute we had."

"Certainly, my lady," agreed Sakuya respectfully. Just as she was about to return through the door, however, a very loud and sudden outburst of "No way, ze!" from Marisa startled the maid. This caused her fingers to open wide and let the knives they were holding to fall. One of them hit the floor harmlessly, but the other two become firmly lodged in Remilia's left foot.

"Ow!" she cried as red blood began to trickle out from beneath her white socks. Being a vampire and having little blood to begin with, Remilia did not bleed a great deal when she incurred an injury, but this did not diminish the pain such an injury would bring. She yanked the knives out from where they had impaled her and shook them menacingly at their owner, who was gasping in horror. "Watch it, Sakuya! It's clumsy acts like this that make me increase the desire to dish out a proper punishment, especially when I haven't done so for so long."

"M-my sincerest apologies, my lady," said Sakuya as fast as she could while making a polite bow. "If you stay here, I'll prepare the proper medical items for those cuts in a flash."

Remilia casually dismissed the idea with the wave of a hand. "Nah, don't worry about it," she said. "Being immortal and all, my injury is just going to heal itself in a few minutes. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that it still hurts like the devil. I'm going to head back to my room for a couple of minutes just to wait for the healing process to go underway." The vampire mistress with a bleeding foot and her anxious maid walked out of the library, leaving Patchouli and her friends alone once again.

* * *

><p>The largest window in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, situated in the library, looked out to the west, while the front of the mansion itself faced the south. Knowing this, Daiyousei had suggested to Cirno that they hold their second meeting of the night beneath the great window to prevent being spotted by the gatekeeper and being forced to leave. The little ice fairy was, at the moment, slumped against the brick wall of the great building with her eyes gently shut, murmuring quietly in her state of sleep and creating a pool of drool along the side of her mouth. Daiyousei herself was also sitting against the wall and leaning on her friend's chilly body, hoping that the cold would keep her from going to sleep herself. Even though she was sitting with essentially a living freezer, her eyelids were beginning to grow very heavy as the pitch-black environment of the night was enveloping her. Dreams about the sorts of games she would be playing the next day at the lake with her friends began to enter her mind, and Daiyousei started to get confused about which environment she was thinking about was the real one. This, of course, was what typically happened when one dreams, but when it happens while one is battling sleep, it leads to a very strange sense of reality. Daiyousei tried telling herself verbally that she was sitting against the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but it was only a few seconds before she forgot that she had said this and began to question where she actually was again. The alluring idea of giving into the overbearing sense of sleep repeatedly crossed her mind, but she tried her best to shoot it down as she knew it would make her and Cirno very vulnerable against danger if both of them were asleep out in the open. Still, she eventually felt she could not stay awake a moment longer in such a dark and quiet place. Just as her eyes were beginning to close for good, she jumped in surprise as she heard a friendly voice shouting to her.<p>

"Yo, Dai-chan and Cirno! We're back!" shouted a gleeful Rumia who ran up to the sleeping girls with Wriggle and Mystia. The sudden shout made Daiyousei instantly snap out of her sleepy state, but Cirno simply groaned, sucked the accumulating drool back into her mouth, and opened her eyes halfway.

"What's up with you two, anyway?" asked Mystia with a hint of disdain in her voice as she readjusted her wings from flight. "We found lots of info, and you're just sleeping the night away."

Daiyousei rubbed the last bit of sleep from the sides of her eyes and carefully unfolded her wings from the state they were in while she was sitting. "Fairies really aren't nocturnal, unlike youkai of night elements. We can't help but get a little tired this late at night."

"Nine o'clock is late for you?" scoffed Mystia as she pushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes with a single hand motion. "I'd say it's not until 4 or 5 in the morning when it's late."

Meanwhile, Rumia had made her way over to the lying Cirno, placed her hands on her shoulders, and enthusiastically began to shake the ice fairy. "C'mon, Cirno! Wake up already and see what we found!"

The jostling motion of her head being rocked back and forth as her body shook finally made Cirno come back to awareness, and she stood up tall and pouted, hands on her hips. "Why'd you hafta do that, Rumia? I was having a really good dream about beating up the boundary youkai and becoming the new strongest person ever in Gensokyo!"

"We're back from the mission you sent us on!" repeated Rumia while she waved her arms, which were still outstretched on either side of her body, up and down energetically. "We found something really interesting from the reconay… I mean, raconais… no, raccoon-ice…" She began to frown as she found she couldn't pronounce the word for what she and her friends were doing. "From the scouting we did. Show them, Wriggle!"

At the mention of her name, Wriggle walked forward and pulled out a folded piece of paper from one of the pockets of her baggy shorts. "Apparently, this is an article Aya wrote for today's newspaper," she explained. "Of course, I can't read, and neither can Rumia or Mystia, so we don't know exactly what it says. But from what we overheard from Youmu, Yuyuko, Yukari, and Marisa—"

"Hold on," interrupted Daiyousei. "Did you just say you heard something from Yuyuko?"

"You heard right," grumbled Mystia sarcastically. "Isn't it just swell? We had to eavesdrop on the ghost girl that once managed to devour and digest me alive, _just because she was a little bit hungry_! I still sometimes lie awake during the day after having nightmares of that experience."

Cirno blushed and shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't know she'd be here. Sorry about that, Mysti."

"Whatever," replied the night sparrow youkai with an indifferent look on her face. "Anyway, as Wriggle was saying, the powerful youkai standing around in the courtyard were all talking about what the article apparently says. From what I gathered, the Scarlet Devil Remilia got a letter three hours ago from someone claiming to want to let the weaker denizens of Gensokyo rise up against the stronger ones. The letter said that before midnight, Remilia is going to be killed. I'm guessing that's the reason why the security of this place has been jacked up."

"Whoa," said Cirno in awe with Daiyousei echoing her a moment later. "Is someone actually plotting a murder in Gensokyo? That's awful!"

Mystia cocked her head to one side and gave Cirno a questioning glance. "How is that awful?" she asked. "You're always babbling about how you're 'the strongest' and everything. It sounds like whoever wrote the letter is on our side if they want weaklings like us to finally get our chance of being dominant in this land. I don't know about you guys, but if Remilia Scarlet dying is all it takes to bring us to power, I'll welcome it."

Cirno furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the night sparrow. "Are you crazy? Look, I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid. If we're gonna become the strongest, we can do it ourselves without some weird killer out there to do it for us. Besides, killing people and youkai and stuff is just wrong; that's called being evil, not strong."

"I think you're right, Cirno," agreed Daiyousei, who spoke up cautiously in order to protect herself from getting shouted at by the two louder girls. "We formed this team to annoy and pull harmless pranks on some of the more powerful residents here, not murder them. If we can, we should try to find out who the killer is going to be so we can stop her from killing Remilia. That would give us a pretty good reputation around Gensokyo, wouldn't it?"

Mystia snorted with a sardonic sneer. "You're funny, Cirno. Always wanting to be the most powerful being in Gensokyo, and then backing down when the chance to do so is right there in front of you. Well, I can't be the only one here who wants to take advantage of such a great opportunity, right?" She turned around and looked hopefully at Rumia and Wriggle, who began to look slightly crestfallen as they realized they were about to be dragged into the conflict as well. "Surely you guys want in on it too, right?"

"Well… uh…" mumbled Wriggle, shuffling her feet uncomfortably, "I don't know about supporting the death of Remilia, but I guess being a part of the rise of the weaker residents of Gensokyo wouldn't be bad if that's all we have to do."  
>"Yeah, I agree!" echoed Rumia as quickly as she could, nodding vigorously.<p>

"No!" shouted Cirno firmly. "I can freeze frogs and Mystia and Rumia can eat humans for food, but we don't just go around supporting plots to kill vampires, okay? End of story." She pointed around the corner of the building. "C'mon. Let's hang out around here and beat up whoever comes near us so we stop any killers from getting in!"

Mystia rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. "Fine. Whatever you say, boss." When the two fairies had their backs to her, however, she narrowed her eyes and let the corners of her lips turn up into a devious smirk as ulterior plans began to conjure themselves in her mind. The firefly and darkness youkai both noticed it, and they exchanged worried glances with each other.

* * *

><p>The ability of Tewi Inaba to bring good luck to humans near her seemed to work well with Reimu, as it took her only about ten minutes of walking after Marisa left her to find a clearing in the bamboo forest. In this clearing, hidden in the deepest part of the great bamboo forest and now looming in front of the shrine maiden was a great old Japanese mansion known as Eientei. While Reimu noticed many rabbits scattered around the yard of the mansion, some of them animals and others youkai, none of them appeared to be the lavender-haired Reisen.<p>

As Reimu started up the gravel steps leading to the front door, some of the rabbits wandering around stopped to stare at her, but none of them looked as though they would attack. Even so, a certain amount of apprehension began to build in her body. _After all_, she thought to herself, _Marisa and I did just beat up one of the most important rabbits living here. I can't imagine they'd be very happy to see me now_. At this time of the night, it was very possible that almost every resident of Eientei would be awake, and they could all join together to defeat her. The butterflies forming in her stomach as this thought bounced around in her head began to overcome her, and she contemplated turning around, making up an excuse to Yukari, and returning right where she came from. Despite this, however, she soon found herself facing the great white door separating her from the inside.

"Well," she said aloud to nobody in particular, "I'm here. I guess there's no point in backing down now." With a firm yet quivering hand, she knocked loudly three times on the door.

"Just a moment," replied a confident and good-natured voice from within the mansion, which was just about the polar opposite of what Reisen's voice sounded like. As Reimu stood in place and stared down the white door, she could hear footsteps from inside slowly drawing closer. At last, they reached the door and the owner of them slid it open. "Ah, it's Reimu. Welcome to Eientei," greeted a woman with long, straight silver hair braided along her back. She wore a dress featuring patterns of constellations against a background of four alternating squares of navy-blue and red, and on her head was a navy nurse's cap also containing constellations and a red cross. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Hello, Eirin," replied Reimu as politely as she could, laying her gohei against the doorframe. "I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about some of the rabbits around here. I couldn't help but notice Reisen wasn't here to open the door like she usually is."

"That's right," agreed Eirin. "She decided to use her vacation days now to take a break from studying medicine and being Kaguya's pet for a little while. That has left me as the one to do the random little chores around the house now, as awful as it sounds." She smiled and opened the door wider. "But enough of that. Please, come in. Follow me."

Reimu, noting that Eirin seemed unusually polite at the moment, picked up her gohei again and stepped into the dim house, getting only dimmer as Eirin slid the door to the outside shut again. As the two of them walked down a corridor with countless doors on both sides of it, Reimu noted that it thankfully didn't seem to stretch on forever like the illusion that Reisen had created last time had done. Every step they took made a long echoing sound that reverberated again and again, though there were virtually no other sounds in the mansion to add to them. "Is there a reason why Eientei is so… I don't know…"

"Quiet?" suggested Eirin, turning her head back to look at the shrine maiden. "Indeed, there is. Reisen is gone on vacation, so she's not around. Tewi and the other rabbits are still out playing in the bamboo forest. As for Kaguya, I, as her personal medical adviser, prescribed to her lots of rest after she got exhausted and irritable the last few days. Since she's sleeping right now, or at least I hope she is, you and I are the only ones awake in here. And if you're curious about why my manners are as refined as they are right now, Kaguya told me that in Reisen's absence, I have to be on my best behavior when I greet guests 'or else'." She smiled amusedly to herself. "I doubt that she's powerful and capable enough to go through with any 'or else' she has in mind, but it's really just quite easier for everyone involved if I follow her wishes. Still, I'd be most grateful if I could drop this charade without you telling her, Reimu."

Reimu shrugged and nodded, and the hallway fell silent again. After about twenty more steps, she let a shiver leave her skin as she gazed around the dark hallway. "Seems a little spooky," she said. "Being all alone in a dark mansion, you know."

"No, it doesn't," responded Eirin curtly. "It's very pleasant having the house to myself so I can develop my new medicines, drugs, and chemicals in peace. That is, unless I have a visit from a certain shrine maiden." Though Eirin made a certain effort to be cordial and polite during regular circumstances, she couldn't help but be a bit arrogant and rude at times as she followed her natural personality.

At last, Eirin stopped at one door which seemed identical to all the others along the hallway. "Here we are," she said, sliding the door open to let herself and Reimu in. Inside was a rather small room with a low table in the center placed on a tatami mat; a traditional Japanese room. A half-finished cup of unsweetened green tea was on one side of the table, and Eirin sat down to it, beckoning to Reimu to sit on the other side. As Reimu did, Eirin took a sip of tea before setting it down again. "Hmm," she said disappointedly, "it's gotten cold already. You didn't want a cup, too, did you?"

Though Reimu's stomach was aching for any sort of nourishment, she decided it would be best not to try Eirin's patience by asking for a cup of tea. "Of course not. I'd just like to know if you could tell me anything about what your rabbits have been up to today."

Eirin tapped her chin thoughtfully as she leaned back from her sitting position. "The rabbits? I don't recall them doing anything out of the ordinary today. Tewi's just been doing her pranks as usual, and Reisen seemed like herself before she left for her vacation. Why do you think they're involved with something?"

Reimu related to Eirin the complete story about the plot that had been launched at the Scarlet Devil that evening. "Tewi is the only one that is unaccounted for on the records of those who have entered the mansion today. When we showed her the letter, she apparently instantly identified the handwriting on it as being written by Reisen. So, I came here to get some answers some answers on what they're actually doing."

"I have to admit," said Eirin, "it seems a little suspicious that Reisen would choose today of all days to go on vacation, especially when Tewi saw her handwriting on the letter. I'm sorry, Reimu, but I really couldn't tell you what the two of them have done today. It's entirely possible that they did do something like this, and I wouldn't know it if they did. Reisen didn't even give me a location on where she would be going on vacation to."

"What about Kaguya? Do you think she might know anything about this?"

"Doubt it," replied Eirin. "She's almost always cooped up in her room throughout most of the day, and I tend to see Tewi and Reisen much more than she does. Oh, and you can disregard that thought I can imagine is brewing in your head of going and waking her up to ask her yourself. I'll be damned if I let anyone wake her up."

Reimu sighed in frustration and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "So, there's no way that you can help me?"

Eirin shrugged and stood up from her sitting position. "Maybe I could. I might have no knowledge of what the rabbits have done, but I could give your operation some help with medicine and drugs, you know? Besides, if they are working on this plot to kill Remilia, it'd be in my best interest to stop them, too. Eientei would get a terrible reputation if word gets out that Reisen is a terrorist rabbit, and that would make Kaguya give me an enormous earful like she so loves to do."

Reimu's eyes brightened. "Are you really going to help us solve this incident? Thanks, Eirin!"

Eirin smiled as she reached out from behind in the shadows to pull out her signature bow and single arrow. "Don't mention it. It beats sitting around and waiting every fifteen minutes to give sleeping pills to the princess." Sliding open the door to the hallway again, she turned her head back to look at Reimu again. "Oh yeah, one more thing."  
>"Yes?" asked Reimu, twirling her gohei nonchalantly.<p>

"Ask permission before you take Tewi away next time. If you think you're doing it behind my back and being 'sneaky', you couldn't be more wrong. If you don't listen, you should be alert in case a cyanide capsule ever 'accidentally' ends up in your drink, okay?" She smiled cheerfully after delivering such an ominous message as Reimu shuddered and entered the hallway. "Well, let's go already! The night isn't getting any younger, and it's pretty useless to just stay around here and do nothing, Reimu."

* * *

><p>Remilia sat on the side of her great bed next to Sakuya, slowly kicking her legs back and forth as she waited for the skin where her foot had been stabbed to repair itself. For most immortals, the self-healing process of the body either took place instantaneously or very quickly, and Remilia rarely had to wait for more than five minutes for an injury to heal. The wounds caused by Sakuya's knives, however, had been present for over ten minutes and had not begun to heal any faster than a normal human's wounds would. She poked at the thin scab that was beginning to form and winced as a minor surge of pain flowed through her nerves. "Why the hell isn't this injury healing itself like it should be!?" she asked aloud, angrily letting her shoes thump with great sound against the wooden frame of her bed each time her legs returned from kicking. "I'm a vampire, for crying out loud!"<p>

Sakuya slowly edged away from the vampire to keep herself safe in case Remilia tried to use violence to relieve her anger. "I'm sorry, but there doesn't seem to be a reasonable explanation for it, my lady. It is almost as if you have lost the ability to regenerate your body parts instantaneously, for your injury remains here even after several minutes."

"No, really, it does?" asked Remilia, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I would have thought that it sprouted sunflowers! But thank you very much, Sakuya, for telling me something that I couldn't realize for myself since I apparently don't have eyes to see it with!" As she watched a frightened Sakuya try to mumble a coherent reply, she muttered a curse beneath her breath and gave as friendly of a smile as she could, her cheeks blushing intensely in embarrassment. "Sorry about that, Sakuya. I'm just a bit on-edge with everything going on tonight. Having to bottle up my anger is only adding to it."

"Not to worry, my lady," Sakuya replied, her shoulders visibly relaxing with relief. As her eyes gazed upon Remilia again, however, they began to fill with worry. "Er… forgive me, Miss Remilia," she began cautiously, "but are you… blushing?"

Remilia brought a hand to her rosy cheek and lightly stroked it. "I guess I am," she agreed. "What does that have anything to do with this, though?"

Sakuya, hands clasped in her lap, looked at the floor as she carefully planned her next words. "Well, it may be nothing, but… When was the last time you have ever blushed, my lady? I cannot remember any single time in the past when you did, and it makes sense, for a vampire would not likely have enough blood in their body to allow blushing to happen."

"You do have a point there," admitted Remilia, who turned her head around to take a look at the elegant, brass-bordered freestanding mirror in the corner behind her. As she surveyed the image of the girl with pink skin and bright crimson cheeks that appeared before her, both she and her reflection frowned. "Now that you mention it, I can't help but notice that my skin is full of vitality and color instead its usual pale pallor." She grinned widely at the reflective surface and ran her index finger along each exposed tooth, touching canines that were as long and sharp as any average person's. "My beautiful fangs seem to have disappeared as well. What's happened to me?"

"If I didn't know better," said Sakuya, tilting her head up and down to completely look her mistress over, "I would say that you are a human with bat wings instead of a vampire, my lady. How this might have happened, however, is beyond me. Unless…" A suspicious look crossed her eyes. "A powerful being may have purposely changed your species to make killing you tonight easier. It's only a theory, I must say, but it may very well be the correct explanation."

"You know, that actually seems to fit quite well," said Remilia, pensively gazing out toward her window. "I find it hard to believe that losing my status as a vampire on the same night that someone sets out to kill me is just a coincidence. So, the question is, who is the perpetrator of my transformation into a human?"

"I think an easier answer to obtain is who is not the perpetrator," replied Sakuya. "To physically change the species of a person without having them realize it takes considerable power and skill, which can rule out any fairies, humans, or basic youkai. To the best of my knowledge, there is no creature in Gensokyo that has the ability to manipulate a species like this, as the more powerful beings like Yuyuko, Yuuka, or Suika have very specific abilities that wouldn't extend to this. In my opinion, there is only one youkai who could have done this sort of thing."

Remilia's eyes widened. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of it sooner? Sakuya, bring her here to me right now! Even if she didn't do it, she must have knowledge on who did and for what reason!"

"Of course, my lady." Sakuya, rising from her sitting position on the bed, bowed respectfully and removed a small gold pocket watch worn from years of use from the side of her dress. As Remilia watched Sakuya stare intently at the pocket watch for a few seconds before vanishing completely, she smiled as she observed her maid taking full advantage of the ability to stop time. Within two seconds of having vanished, Sakuya returned, carrying a cheerfully smiling Yukari by the back of her collar. "I apologize for taking so long, my lady," she said. "This one was admittedly a tad difficult to be brought from the library against her will."

Yukari laughed and turned her head toward Sakuya. "You don't really think I'm being brought against my will, do you? If that were true, I would expect you'd be lying in a pool of your own deliciously crimson blood at this time. No, I just thought I'd prefer to let you do the work of dragging me over here." She turned back toward the vampire sitting on the bed and waved casually. "Evening, Miss Remilia. I trust you're doing well, apart from having your life in jeopardy?"

Sakuya glared daggers at Yukari and brandished actual ones at her face. "Do not address my lady unless she addresses you first, or you shall be the one lying in a pool of your own blood!"

"Relax, Sakuya," said Remilia, causing Sakuya to reluctantly pull her knives back from Yukari's face. "Now, Yukari, I'd like to know what you were thinking when you decided to turn me into a human tonight, a pitiful species that accepts death so readily and easily. Don't bother taking me for a fool and denying it; I think a non-healing wound, blush on both cheeks, and loss of fangs is proof enough."

"Hmm, I suppose you do appear to be a human," agreed Yukari, carefully performing a quick scan of the girl in front of her with her eyes. "Is that such a problem, though? The only issue I see here is that a little girl doesn't like the pain of a cut in her foot." She smirked mischievously. "Want me to kiss it? That should make it feel all better!"

Without missing a beat, Sakuya returned the knives to Yukari's smirking face and produced a glare that would intimidate an oni. "Another insolent remark about my lady like that out of you, and I swear that these knives won't miss their mark!"

"Cool it, Sakuya," commanded Remilia. "As for you, Yukari, I think I'll sink my teeth into your lovely neck and let my maid go ahead with her threats if you continue to downplay this. I need answers, damn it! Tell me why you changed me into a human!"

Yukari yawned lazily and shrugged. "Sorry, but answers are going to be hard to come by for something that I have no knowledge of committing. Yes, I am the only one who could have done such a thing, as I know Sakuya said, but that doesn't mean I knowingly did it. Wish I could tell you more, but I'm afraid that's all there is."

Remilia raised an eyebrow and scowled. "Not good enough. I don't know whether you're lying or not, but it really doesn't matter at this point. I demand that you return me back to being a vampire so I will have a better chance of surviving tonight!"

"I would have preferred something like 'Please, my dearest Miss Yakumo, I humbly request your assistance in returning my species back to its original form, as you are the only one who can help me and thus I shall be in your eternal debt', but I guess that's not going to come out of the mouth of a young brat. Well, if it will quiet your whining, I suppose I could do it." Without bothering to do something flashy or even snap her fingers, Yukari manipulated the boundary of Remilia's species with her mind. The vampire's skin became pale once again, her injury from Sakuya's knives instantly vanished from view, and her two white, glistening fangs began to poke out from behind her closed lips again. "Happy now, Little Miss Vampire?"

Before Remilia or Sakuya could give a reply, the door to Remilia's bedroom was thrust open by an eager Chen who smiled and curled her tails around each other as she caught sight of her mistress's mistress. "Ah, there you are! Please don't run off on me again, Mistress Yukari!"

Sakuya looked behind her shoulder at the cat youkai. "Sorry, kitty, but Yukari is a bit busy right now. Why don't you wait for her out in the hallway?"

"Hold on a sec," interrupted Yukari, who finally decided to free herself from Sakuya's grasp and walked up to Chen. "Maybe she can help us shed a little light on this situation. Can you help us do that, Chen?"

Chen stared blankly at the youkai, maid, and vampire watching her, but then let her smile return to her face. "I'm not sure how much help I can bring you guys," she admitted, "but I can definitely try!"

"Excellent," replied Yukari. "I remember you told me that you and Tewi were playing at Mayohiga this afternoon. I woke up at about a quarter past six this evening to find you alone, without Tewi or Ran, having fun with whatever you were doing. So, please be a dear and let us in on what exactly happened before I awoke."

"Let me see," said Chen, taking a seat on the floor in order to focus her mind better. "Tewi came over around two o'clock this afternoon. Since you were asleep and Ran didn't have any jobs for me to do today, I agreed to play with her. We did all the regular stuff: playing games, running around in the meadows, and pulling pranks on people." She smiled widely. "You should have seen the look on the Human Village's schoolteacher's face when we painted her whole classroom orange! It was so funny! Of course, we narrowly escaped getting headbutted for that, and she said we have to come back tomorrow to clean it all off, and—"

"Chen," said Yukari, unamused by the cat's story. "Let's go back on topic, shall we?"

"Fiiine," whined Chen, disappointed that she couldn't say everything about her prank. "Anyway, at about six o'clock, Reisen came over to our house. She said that she was here to tell Tewi that Eirin requested her back home at Eientei, but she just wanted to say hello to you and Ran first. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that at the time, so I unlocked the door leading to the hallway where both of your bedrooms are. Reisen seemed to be there for quite a while, so Tewi said she would get going so she could return home before sundown. At last, Reisen came back out and left without another word, and a minute or two later, you emerged from your room, too."

"Ah hah!" declared Yukari triumphantly. "I believe we've come across our answer. Thank you very much, Chen."

"Uh… you're welcome, I guess?" said Chen, eyes wide with confusion and question. Remilia felt a similar emotion inside of her, but she decided to hide it to keep her pride intact.

"You don't understand it, do you?" asked Yukari. "Fine then; I'll explain it to the less mentally-gifted beings in this room. When I awoke at the first moments of the evening, I was staring into the red, bewitching eyes of the lunar rabbit herself. As you all probably know, Reisen has the ability to control waves of light with her eyes, and she primarily uses this power to turn others insane. In my case, I saw my entire bedroom melt away into a swirling mix of psychedelic colors and shapes. This, coupled with the typical confusion one feels when they first wake up from a long sleep, made me quite bewildered indeed. I wanted to manipulate a few boundaries to make this frightening illusion dissipate, but I was afraid of what disastrous consequences could ensue if I did.

"Reisen then spoke to me. She said, 'You are experiencing a dream, Miss Yakumo, but no ordinary dream. It can't be terminated by waking up. In order to free yourself from the terrifying hallucination you are undoubtedly experiencing, you must do exactly as I say.' She told me that everything would return to normal and that I would simply 'wake up' if I obeyed her commands. Feeling fear for the first time in what must be about a thousand years now, I figured it would be best to do what she wished and worry about the consequences later. In my hallucination, she picked up and gave to me what looked like the decapitated, obese, grotesque head of Reimu that held a boiling, rainbow liquid inside. From what she said, it was actually a flask of medicine she had stolen from Eirin that, when digested, will cause temporary amnesia for a few minutes. It seems to have worked, for after that moment, I only remember waking up as usual from my bed in my normal, non-psychedelic room and dismissing the entire experience as a dream. If what Chen said was correct, though, it was indeed real, and I must have manipulated the boundary of Remilia's species without remembering it."

Remilia seemed to contemplate carefully all that Yukari had said before deciding to speak. "Absurd… but plausible," she concluded. "I think we can agree that if Reisen is actually doing things like that, then she is indeed the one we're looking to stop."

"Exactly," agreed Yukari. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to the library to tell Patchy and the gang about everything we've discovered now. Until next time, maid and little vampire girl." Another break in reality appearing as Yukari's signature dimension of unblinking eyes tied with two red bows formed, and the youkai and her cat entered it, leaving Remilia alone with Sakuya in her room.

Sakuya turned to her mistress, who was still pouting and wearing an unhappy expression. "You have been restored to your status as a vampire, my lady. Is there something still the matter?"

Remilia's scarlet eyes glistened in the dim light, and she ran her tongue along her lips. "Yukari referred to me as a 'little vampire girl' who does nothing but whine nowadays."  
>"Don't listen to her, my lady. She's just being—"<p>

"No, Sakuya," interrupted Remilia, a menacing edge growing on her voice. "She's right. These days, I have been reduced from the terrifying Scarlet Devil of the night whose name strikes fear in the bravest of hearts to a little brat with long teeth. It's understandable, for what type of vampire would willingly abstain from drinking the blood of her victims? A weak, pathetic, sparkling one, for sure. I can't survive on regular food and the occasional meal of animal blood any longer."

"My lady," said Sakuya, "I would be happy to offer up some of my blood to you if that is what you require."

"Thanks, but that wouldn't work," said Remilia. "What I really yearn for is the thrill of feeding off of an unwilling victim. It's been so long since I chased an innocent human through the moonlit hallways of the mansion, purposely slowing down at times to toy with them and let them think they'll get away. Then, finally watching them realize their impending doom as they see that the hall ends in a dead-end and I'm slowly closing in. The terror in their eyes is unimaginably delicious, and it's all the more satisfying to hear them beg and plead for mercy as my fangs draw closer. The taste of pure, human blood mixed with fear and adrenaline is simply something you must be a vampire to appreciate and enjoy to its fullest. It is richer and more satisfying than the most sinful of chocolate cakes with buttercream frosting baked by one thousand professional pastry chefs." Remilia paused in her analogy as saliva began to drip from her revealed fangs.

"M-my lady, are you feeling all right?" asked Sakuya, concerned by the almost trance-like state her mistress had entered.

"Of course, I have quite the light appetite, so I become satisfied with only a small amount of blood drained," continued Remilia in an ominous tone, ignoring her maid. "The victims would almost never die from blood loss, so they would be able to leave the mansion alive. This would never come without the permanent fear embedded in their heart, however. The humans would be well aware of the fact that the terrifying Scarlet Devil, descendant of Vlad Dracula himself, is still living and lurking, perhaps waiting at this very moment for the perfect opportunity to spring upon them, whisk them away to her mansion, and feed on their fear and blood. Ever since we have come to Gensokyo, however, this lovely reputation I built up has been lost. It's been long enough; I simply cannot go another day without feeding in the proper manner like I used to."

Sakuya, despite having lived with Remilia for the longest time and developed a great trust in her, became a bit frightened as she realized she was a human sitting in the same room as a vampire yearning for fresh blood. "My lady, please. I am sure we shall find a sufficient source of blood tonight, but I think it would be best to focus our attention on the efforts of the killer who wrote the letter at the moment," she said while cautiously edging toward the door.

Remilia's eyes returned to their typical brightness and she wiped the drool that was forming along her mouth with her arm. "You're right, Sakuya," she said in her normal voice. "I'll just be on the lookout for any victims that deserve a proper 'punishment' from me."

* * *

><p>At about the same time that Yukari and Chen returned to the library of the mansion via a boundary gap, Patchouli thrust open the great door and walked into the center of the room. Marisa, Alice, and Youmu, who were all seated around the main table in the library, looked up as they saw the purple librarian enter with two different record sheets, one tucked beneath each arm.<p>

"Hey there, Patchy!" shouted Marisa with a casual wave. "How's it going, ze?"

"Excellent," replied Patchouli with as much enthusiasm as she could show from her usual stoic expression. "I got some fresh air from outside to rejuvenate my lungs, and I have a new lead on this incident."

"Wow, you weren't just taking a pointless break?" asked Alice sarcastically, causing Marisa to playfully shove her to make her quiet down.

"Well, let's hear it," said Youmu, a few beads of sweat beginning to form along her hairline as she anxiously awaited the news. "I-it doesn't have to do with Lady Yuyuko, does it?"

Patchouli shook her head and slapped one of the record sheets down on the table in front of Marisa. The line that included Tewi Inaba's name was circled multiple times in ink. "This is the record sheet that we got about two hours ago." She then dropped the other sheet she was carrying next to the one on the table. As the other three girls looked at both of them, they noticed that the two sheets appeared to be visually identical with the exception of one missing line on the other sheet. "This record sheet is the one that Hong Meiling personally gave me a few minutes ago when I went to see her. Note the absence of any record of Tewi Inaba entering the mansion at 4:55 PM."

"So Meiling never saw Tewi come here at all?" said Youmu.

"Precisely," agreed Patchouli. "Unless Meiling was sleeping again, and judging from the number of records occurring very soon before and after 4:55 PM I don't think she was, Tewi was telling the truth when she said she was here at Mayohiga this entire afternoon and never came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Therefore, the fact that we were given a record sheet that claims that Tewi was here means somebody was purposely forging it to lead us astray."

"Why would anyone wanna do that, ze?" asked Marisa.

"Seems pretty obvious to me," replied Alice, who quickly cleared her throat. "The way I see it, if Tewi was never hear in the first place, then nobody had to enter the mansion in order to deliver the letter. In other words, it was produced by somebody who works and lives here on a regular basis. This way, she could easily walk in and out of Remilia's bedroom without raising much suspicion. Forging the record sheets to make us suspect Tewi would be a way of covering her tracks for a little while longer. Unfortunately for her, however, it seems she didn't count on us finding her out so quickly."

"Why do you say that, Alice?" asked Patchouli, her fists beginning to tighten in suspicion.

"Well, instead of being off at the mastermind's headquarters, she's still here in the library," said Alice, casually pointing to something behind the librarian. Patchouli whirled around 180 degrees and spotted her devil assistant Koakuma holding a large glass platter of various pastries and offering them to Yukari.

"Sakuya baked these fresh from the oven just a few minutes ago," said Koakuma with an innocent smile. "She said you guys would get hungry and would appreciate some delicious snacks. Would you like to have the first taste, Miss Yakumo?"

"Don't mind if I do," said Yukari with a chuckle. With a single motion of her hand, she picked up a croissant that was still producing steam from the top of the plate and took a large bite from it. "Delicious," she mumbled between bites with a mouth full of pastry. As Koakuma made a quick exit from the library with her glass platter in hand, Yukari grew a puzzled look in her eyes, slowly moving her tongue around her mouth to completely experience the taste of the croissant. "Sakuya ought to learn how to bake pastries better," she decided aloud. "The last time I checked, barbiturates are not ingredients in croissants."

Patchouli, Marisa, Alice, and Youmu could only watch as Yukari collapsed onto the floor, completely unconscious. The door to the library that Koakuma had opened to leave slammed shut, leaving the huge room completely silent for a few seconds before the boundary youkai let out a quiet moan in her unconscious state.

"Damn it, ze!" shouted Marisa, slamming her fist onto the table angrily. "She's out cold. Knowing her, she's probably gonna be that way for at least eight hours or something. What can we do now that Koakuma's gone?"

"If she knew that we had figured out she was the one who forged the records, I don't think she would have taken the time to drug Yukari like that," said Alice. "So, if we follow her at a safe distance, she can probably lead us to Reisen."

Patchouli walked over to the sleeping body of Yukari and stared at it with unease. "I suppose we can do that. Still… Koa must have had a very specific reason to target Yukari. I can't help but feel as if something very terrible is going to happen in her absence."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** With only two hours to go, it seems Reisen is nowhere to be found, and Koakuma is actually working against Remilia! Or is she? We will have to wait to find out the truth.

It was interesting to show Remilia in three different lights in this chapter: the confident and capable owner and mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the childish brat annoyed by knife wounds in her foot, and the frightening vampire who thirsts for blood from a helpless victim. Being able to act so differently depending on the circumstances makes her one of my favorite characters.

It may seem a bit surprising that Mystia would be the one that would agree with the ideas of the letter's author instead of Cirno, but I think that their characters would make the two of them do just as they did. The little fairy may always wish to be stronger than everyone else and can be a bit dumb, but she does have good morals. Mystia, however, seems like the kind of person whose ego would cause them to ignore the consequences while journeying down the road to greatness. What will happen to our favorite band of idiots throughout the rest of the day?

It was fun to implement the reference to the Yukkuri meme. It does seem to be the kind of thing the characters of Gensokyo would see in hallucinations.

Anyway, hope you all had a good Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanza, or whatever. See you next year with Chapter 5 in the 10:00 PM hour!


	5. 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM

While the Scarlet Devil Mansion had a very tall and sturdy brick wall surrounding it against which Hong Meiling would stand as she guarded or slept, it also had a neatly-trimmed hedge that lined the brick barrier on the exterior. This lining of shrubbery, which the Chinese gatekeeper had grown and taken care of herself after she suggested to Remilia that the outside of the mansion looked a bit dull, was tall, thick, and green: a perfect location for one to hide in. This was the idea formed by Youmu Konpaku, who was currently sitting out of sight in the portion of hedge that was growing just to the right of the main gate. While she herself was currently completely hidden in the center of the brush, unaffected by the sharp and prickly branches as any experienced gardener should be, the tail of her phantom-half Myon was ever-so-slightly exposed to the night. As she gripped the glowing white phantom and pulled it into the hedge with her, Youmu peeked out from her green hiding spot and kept her eyes fixed on the front door, waiting patiently for the little devil girl to leave the mansion through it.

While the gardener was sitting motionlessly in the hedge, she caught a glimpse of the ghostly Myon turning a shade of lavender from the corner of her eye. "_Youmu, are you in position?_" Patchouli's voice softly radiated from the phantom body.

Youmu grasped Myon by its wriggling tail and held it out in front of her. "I'm in the bushes right now. Meiling is on board with our plan, and she promised not to stop Koakuma from leaving or act suspiciously, so we should be good."

"_Excellent_," Patchouli replied positively. "_Remember, don't start following Koa until you're absolutely sure she can't see you. If she suspects that she's being followed, we'll lose all chances of getting to Reisen. You're by far the fastest person we have, so you shouldn't have any trouble catching up if you lose sight of her. That's why we chose you for this; that, of course, and the fact that you're the most expendable person around._"

"Excuse me?!"

Patchouli laughed quietly. "_I'm only kidding, Youmu. But I'll make this call brief to make sure Koa doesn't hear you as she passes by. Contact me if you have the opportunity to about what you find, all right?_" She paused for a moment. "_…I have to admit, I'm perplexed as to why she would betray me like this. She's always been such a loyal familiar in the past, and… well… I can't come up with a logical reason as to why she would start acting differently today. If you can, Youmu, do you think you could try to find the answer for me when you catch up to her?_"

"I'll try my best to figure it out," the gardener replied. "Youmu out." Myon turning white again to signify the end of the contact came at a very convenient time, occurring just as Koakuma emerged from the front door. As the girl walked down the path of the courtyard a bit too quickly, Youmu could see that she wore a forced smile that barely hid a very stressed and concerned mood.

When Koakuma reached the space in the middle of the brick wall and hedges that served as the mansion's gate, Meiling took a quick breath before casually approaching the young devil. "Good evening, Miss Koakuma," she said with a polite smile. "What brings you out so late tonight?"

Koakuma looked nervously behind her shoulder at the large window of the library before turning back to Meiling. "I… um… wanted to take a stroll outside to get some fresh air and rejuvenate my mind and body. It'll just be a brief one around the Misty Lake."

Meiling stood back to allow the devil to pass. "Very well. Have a nice walk, Miss Koakuma. Would you like me to inform Miss Patchouli about where you're going?"

"T-that's all right," replied Koakuma. "I already told her. I'll be off, then." As she began to move again, her pace sped up into one that had more in common with jogging than walking. Youmu remained completely motionless in her hiding spot for about a minute or two while she waited for Koakuma to leave the range of earshot. When at last her bright red hair was but a fading dot on the horizon, Youmu crept out from inside the bushes and brushed away all the brambles that had lodged themselves in her skin, turning around and freeing Myon from the plants as well.

"You'd better hurry," advised Meiling, pointing at the rapidly retreating girl. "She looks like she's going pretty fast to wherever her destination is."

After saying a brief thanks for playing along with the plan, Youmu began to pursue Koakuma, who had broken into a full-out run by this point after crossing the vast lake. However, the devil's running speed was pathetic in comparison to the ghostly gardener's, and Youmu was able to close in at a distance of about ten meters in just about a minute while still remaining completely out of sight behind the various trees they passed. When Koakuma reached a clearing in the middle of the vast forest, she slowed her running speed down to a halt and bent over, panting heavily to catch her breath. As the devil's breath slowly returned to a softer and more regular pace, she bent her legs and sat down on the forest floor, damp from the dew of the night. After taking a brief glimpse around her to make sure no human or youkai was watching (during which Youmu compressed her body as much as possible behind a great maple tree to avoid being seen), Koakuma pulled out a very small, thin, indigo hard-cover book that appeared to have no title from one of the pockets of her dress and held it up to the night sky, where it almost seemed to blend in with its color. The blending in was quickly lost, however, as the book's cover began to turn a bright shade of yellow that greatly contrasted with the night sky as the sun would.

"_Who is this?_" demanded an intimidating and booming voice from the book. Youmu frowned, as while the daunting voice sounded very familiar, she couldn't place where she had heard it from before.

"It's Koakuma," the devil answered. "The plan to knock out Yukari with the drugs worked perfectly. I think the GGA, as they call it, is very close to discovering my part in all of this, if it hasn't already, but I'm making my way to your place as we speak."

"_Well done,_" the one on the other end of the conversation replied approvingly. "_From what you've heard, have the girls gotten closer to discovering me or my friends?_"

"I don't think so," replied Koakuma. "Even though they've identified Reisen as the author of the letter, they're still busy dealing with Tewi and Yuyuko. It seems as though they have no idea who developed this plan in the first place."

"_That's good. As long as we stay a few steps ahead of them, they won't be able to handle what happens when it happens so quickly. Get back here as soon as you can, and, of course, make sure nobody's following you._"

"Got it," responded Koakuma. As she said this, the book's color returned to indigo, and she hid it away again before standing up to continue running. While Youmu felt fortunate to be able to eavesdrop on such an important conversation, she also gulped as the feeling of dread from having to oppose a whole group of unidentified people radiated throughout her entire body.

* * *

><p>Although Flandre Scarlet had the appearance and maturity of a very young child, the blonde girl was by no means stupid and had an intellect one gets after living for 500 years. From this, after discovering that Remilia had not remembered to lock the basement door five minutes after the argument that took place, Flandre had decided to wait for about two hours before attempting to leave. If Remilia had left the door unlocked on purpose, she concluded, it would be a test that would make her receive a harsh scolding if she failed by sneaking out. While this was not true, Flandre would have indeed gotten severely reprimanded if Remilia had come down to find that she had escaped. From this, Flandre decided to wait for a few hours to ensure that Remilia would not come down and discover that her sister was missing. This was a decision that jeopardized the vampire's chances of taking advantage of the situation, for if Remilia had not been inadvertently stabbed in the foot by Sakuya and subsequently discovered her transformation into a human, she would have followed through with her plan to check on her sister and discovered her failure to lock the door properly.<p>

After two hours, Flandre, being the impatient girl she was, decided to finally make her escape. From the thin ceiling that was built above her, the vampire could typically hear all that went on in the mansion during the course of the day. As Flandre peered through the pitch-black environment up at the uneven slabs of stone forming a ceiling over her head, no significant sounds of footsteps, voices, or other signs of life entered the room. Assuming that the coast was clear, Flandre hurried back to her cot, bent down on her knees beside it, and blindly extended her hand into the darkness underneath the bed.

Sweeping her arm left and right in an attempt to find something, she grimaced as her hand collided with the silky fibers of numerous cobwebs developing beneath the cot. After a few more sweeps, however, Flandre suddenly started to eagerly twitch her crystalline, rainbow wings as her hand touched a cold, smooth rod of metal. Wrapping her petite fingers tightly around the rod, she quickly retracted her arm from what was essentially a network of cobweb beneath the bed. After she gave both it and her fingers a quick rubbing on her skirt to get rid of the dust that had accumulated, she held the rod up to her crimson eyes for inspection. The jet-black rod, about one inch thick and one meter long, curved very smoothly in multiple places like a slithering snake. One side ended with a shape similar to a heart with two identical holes and symmetrical outcroppings off of the end, while the other side had a shape similar to the talons of an eagle. While the rod felt cool to the touch, the wielder knew how hot it could get when it burst into flames as part of an attack.

"Ah, Laevatein," Flandre murmured softly as she gently stroked the metal rod with her index finger. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? You might finally get some exercise tonight if something goes wrong." Laevatein, being a lifeless piece of metal, did not respond, but Flandre smiled cheerfully anyway and brought the hand holding the mystical weapon to her side.

As Flandre reached the imposing door between the basement and the stairs beyond and grasped the doorknob with her right hand, she hesitated for a moment. It occurred to her that if she took one step further and continued on beyond this door, she would essentially be an escaped convict in her own house. The thought of being chased down and caught by familiar friends in familiar hallways should she be discovered seemed very frightening to the vampire, and she had to take a few deep breaths to compose herself. Like most people who are about to start a daunting or risky activity, the idea of turning back and forgoing it crept into her conscious mind, and Flandre's fingers began to loosen around the metal doorknob.

"No," she concluded at last, returning the grip she held before on the knob. "It's been too many years, and I just can't pass up an opportunity to see the night sky again. If Remi gets angry at me or if those two humans from last time come again, so be it." While holding up Laevatein in a defensive manner, Flandre slowly turned the brass knob and pulled the door backwards toward her. Though the door produced a torturously loud creaking sound that reverberated against the opposite wall of the basement, Flandre could not see anyone at the foot of the stairs who would hear it. Taking a brief final glimpse around the dark and dingy basement that had contained her for so many years, Flandre silently slipped through the open crack of the door and ascended the steps toward the main floor of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Five years ago, after Remilia had asserted her influence in Gensokyo by releasing a red mist over the land, Flandre had the chance to briefly wander the hallways of the mansion before getting sealed away again by Reimu and Marisa. The vampire considered that saying she recognized the lavish scarlet carpets adorning the floors or the elegant lanterns along the walls, however, would be a lie. As she stood in the middle of a very long corridor that stretched for what looked like miles in both directions, Flandre realized that she did not know where she wished to go or even how to get there. Every door inscribed in the walls looked alike, and the vampire, expecting when she emerged to immediately see at least one other creature to fight or ask directions from, could not decide which one to enter. As a result, she let her confusion take control and made the decision to stay put for the moment.

While Flandre was carefully staring down the right side of the hallway, she became aware of the sound of another being coming from behind her. Being a vampire with super-hearing abilities, Flandre was able to recognize the sound as the high-pitched voice of a fairy humming to herself long before said fairy came into view. Quickly thrusting Laevatein behind her back and putting on an innocent, childish smile that nobody could deny was cute, Flandre turned around just in time to make out the fairy turning the corner about fifty meters from her. Although the Scarlet sisters considered every fairy maid to be identical and interchangeable, this particular fairy that was turning the corner was the same one that had given Flandre her daily blood and alerted Sakuya to the explosion earlier on.

As the fairy got close enough to see that there was another person in the hallway, she tilted her head curiously and continued to approach the girl.

"'Scuse me," the fairy called out while still flying closer. "Can you help me out here? I need to find… uh… Room 457, I think it was? This is my first day working here, and apparently that's where my quarters are, but everyone else seems to be asleep, so I haven't been told where it is. In fact, you're the first person I've seen… tonight…" The fairy's speech started to trail off as she got close enough to recognize the girl. As she saw the familiar blonde side ponytail, red outfit, and smile, she let out a terrified yelp and proceeded to slowly back away a few steps.

"Sorry," replied Flandre cheerfully, "but I'm actually trying to find my way around this place myself."

"F-F-Flandre Scarlet?" the fairy stuttered, looking frantically around for any open doors. "I thought Remilia said you were always locked in the basement in the job interview."

Flandre shrugged with an exaggerated motion, letting her wings of rainbow crystals bounce up and down in the motion. "Remi said I can be let out tonight." As she gazed at the incredulous and fearful look on the fairy's face, a small smirk began to form on her own. "Of course, if you don't believe me, you can go ahead and take precious time out of Remilia's day by asking her. Just make sure she doesn't give you one of those punishments she enjoys dishing out to naughty, slacking, and disobedient fairy maids." As she amusedly watched the fairy tremble in fright after falling to the floor, Flandre brought out Laevatein from behind her back and casually twirled it in one hand like a baton. "So I know you don't know where Room 457 is, but you must have been to Remilia's study when you were hired, right?"

The fairy, eyes affixed on the fearsome weapon the vampire held in her hand, vigorously nodded her head as quickly as she could. "Y-yes, I did," she said with a quivering voice.

"Great!" chirped Flandre. "You can take me there! Unless…" Her eyes narrowed mischievously as the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. "Unless you'd like to see what happens when fairies disobey _me_!" Flandre had good practice in smiling in an evil, insane way, and so she could easily replicate it whenever she needed to. "I like it when that happens, since it's one of the only times in which I get to play with a living creature nowadays. You're curious about what happened to the previous fairy maid that took care of me and why Remi needed to hire a new one, right? " She waved Laevatein around menacingly for emphasis, barely able to contain the laughter that was building up inside of her. Putting on a terrorizing persona to intimidate a littler creature was the sort of hobby that vampires naturally loved doing, of course.

By this time, the poor fairy was sweating profusely over her entire body and had nearly fainted from fear. Still, she summoned the courage to look up into Flandre's scarlet eyes and nod weakly. "J-just follow me," the little fairy whimpered in a pathetic manner. She pulled herself up from the carpet and began to fly in an unconfident, uneven manner down the hallway. Flandre joyously followed behind while skipping, looking in wonder at every little detail she had never seen before in the corridor.

_After I get this done_, Flandre thought to herself, _it's high time I make up all the years I missed of exploring this huge place. There has to be a secret passage or two somewhere around here that nobody has found yet!_ The vampire giggled quietly from the delight of this prospect.

* * *

><p>While the girls of the GGA were sitting in Voile Library and intensely sorting through the information they had collected regarding the incident (or sitting around and cracking pointless jokes, depending upon whom was asked), the location of the moon rabbit Reisen Udongein Inaba, the one they had identified as the author of Remilia's death threat, still alluded them all. While Patchouli, Alice, and Marisa had suspected that Koakuma was fleeing from the mansion to the moon rabbit's location, it was nothing more than a speculation. In fact, it would have come as quite a surprise to the librarian, doll-maker, and magician to know that Reisen was actually wandering through the dense forest growing directly behind the Scarlet Devil Mansion about half a kilometer from their very position. While the rabbit had her home in the middle of a bamboo forest, the thick woods infested with minor fairies and youkai was a rather different and unpleasant experience for her.<p>

"Crap," muttered Reisen, halting her walk as one sleeve of the black business suit she was wearing got caught on a long branch. Even after she tugged her arm free from the limb, a long rip remained in the suit like a battle scar. "Kaguya's going to kill me when she finds out I've ruined another suit," she said, rabbit ears drooping in disappointment. After a moment, however, they began to perk up again as she smiled to herself. "It would be just like her to not care one bit about me writing a death threat to a vampire but give me a harsh punishment for ripping my shirt."

Not a second after Reisen had finished dealing with the snagging branch, a multitude of bright white bullets grazed the side of her vision. Turning to her right, she caught sight of a very small youkai sitting on one of the higher limbs of a maple tree. Kicking her legs energetically, the youkai, who had short brown hair contained in an olive-green headband and wore a tattered knee-length dress of the same shade of green, laughed merrily and started shooting a few more white bullets from the center of her body. "A bunny!" she squealed excitedly. "You're cute, but you'd be even cuter in my tummy!"

Reisen sighed and rolled her eyes, not even needing to move an inch to dodge the horribly-aimed bullets being shot at her. While she had a black pistol concealed within her suit for defending herself against attacks, she decided that using it against such a small youkai would be unnecessary. "Sorry to disappoint you," she said, "but I'm not on the menu today. However, you might be able to help me. Have you seen an ice fairy and her friends around here?"

The youkai's eyes brightened, and she pointed in a western direction, stopping the release of her white bullets. "Yeah! They were hanging out over there next to some big house. None of them looked very tasty, though, so I didn't bother them."

Reisen smiled warmly, and she pulled out a raw carrot that was also concealed in her business suit. "Thank you," she said, tossing the carrot up to the girl in the tree. "I was saving this for a midnight snack, but if you're hungry enough to be pursuing rabbits, you probably need it more than I do. It might not be meat, but it's low-fat, high in vitamins, and quite delicious."

The little youkai examined the orange vegetable closely from several angles before tentatively taking a nibble from the tip and allowing the flavors to completely immerse the inside of her mouth. "Not too bad," she admitted. "Thanks, bunny girl!" Reisen, however, had already departed from the tree in the direction the youkai had pointed in.

Cirno, being the incredible clever strategist she was, determined that the most effective and bullet-proof formation she and her four friends could be in was, as she called it, a "pentygon". So, as Meiling looked out of the corner of her eye and wondered why three youkai and two fairies were standing near the corner of the building with all of their backs touching each other, this was the reason behind it. Though she wanted to walk over to them and have at least some people to talk to, she decided it would be best to follow her duties to a tee to please Sakuya and Remilia. So, the gatekeeper remained stationed at her post, looking around intently for anyone who appeared to be a possible intruder bent on murdering her mistress. Since her post was positioned in the very center of the courtyard, it was not possible for her to see anything on the other three sides of the mansion. The approaching moon rabbit was therefore able to tiptoe along the western wall of the building and remain completely out of sight.

"Hey, Cirno, somebody's coming!" whispered Wriggle, who had her back to the front of the mansion. As it was the first thing any of them had said in about half an hour, the others got rather startled by the sudden phrase and whirled around backwards to see for themselves.

"You see?" said Cirno, putting her hands on her hips proudly. "I knew we'd find the person we're looking for by standing here!"

"So, what are we supposed to do now?" wondered Rumia. "I don't really think standing around like sitting ducks is the best option."

"Um… uh…" said Cirno, the blank look on her face visible even while being shrouded in the bubble of darkness formed by Rumia. "Oh yeah, I remember now! Prepare yourselves for fighting, everybody!" The fairy raised her arms into the air and let the tips of her fingers become encased in tiny blocks of ice. The rest of the girls looked at each other, shrugged, and assumed similar battle stances. By that time, Reisen had gotten close enough to them for her long ears to become visible.

"Oh, it's the moon rabbit!" exclaimed Daiyousei, covering her eyes with her hands. "Don't look at her eyes, or you'll go crazy."

"Relax," laughed Rumia. "Stopping people from seeing is my specialty!" The pitch-black bubble of darkness surrounding her expanded to encompass the four others. While three of them looked at the darkness youkai with wonder in their eyes, Mystia scoffed.

"Well done," the sparrow said uninterestedly. "You sort of forgot that _I_ have that power too and can use it very well if I do say so myself, but whatever."  
>"Pardon me," called Reisen from her distance of about twenty feet away, "but shrouding your eyes is not necessary, for I have no intention of fighting or manipulating any of you. I only wish to talk to you about something."<p>

Wriggle glanced at Cirno with inquiring eyes. "Should we trust her?"

"She didn't seem like such a bad person during the flower incident," the ice fairy said. "Besides, if she tries to pull anything funny, we can just all give her a good beating!"

As Reisen closed in the distance to the five girls, Rumia thinned the darkness layer ever-so-slightly to allow a low level of visibility among it. "My thanks for doing that," the rabbit said, graciously bowing in respect to the five girls. "You are Team ⑨, I presume?"

"That's right!" shouted Cirno. "The strongest and smartest mischief makers for justice in Gensokyo. Right now we're standing watch to stop any intruders that want to kill people from getting in the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Reisen tentatively twirled one finger in a few locks of her long lavender hair. "I see. So, may I assume that you've therefore heard about the assassination attempt on Remilia Scarlet's life?"

"We have," said Mystia, gently pushing Cirno back to face Reisen directly. "I thought that if it meant the lesser and younger youkai like us would be able to live above the bottom rung of society for once, it would be worth pursuing. Cirno here, however, totally shot that idea down. The rest of us were kind of divided on the issue." Mystia had also met Reisen in the past during the flower incident a year or two ago, and they could therefore talk without any formal introductions.

"You said that your team was 'for justice', correct?" asked Reisen. "I, for one, do not consider it justice at all for the powerful humans and youkai to parade around Gensokyo as if they own the land, kicking any weaker being that crosses their path. You may have less power than some, but that does not mean you are any less of a being for it. Bringing the end of these injustices is the cornerstone of the movement that we are starting here, beginning with Remilia Scarlet's death."

"When you say 'we', does that mean you're one of the people plotting the death?" asked Daiyousei. The fairy was a bit frightened of the sudden appearance of the rabbit, and she therefore stood behind Wriggle as she asked.

Reisen smiled, her cheeks beginning to fill with the redness of a blush. "Yes, that is correct. In fact, I am the one who personally wrote the letter that Remilia received and Aya published. Anyway, I've come to see you to respectfully ask you to join our movement. We could definitely use your help in the events that are to come later on."

"Later events?" asked Mystia curiously. "What sorts of things are going to happen?"

"I can't go into very many details," said Reisen, "but some of the events that will take place later will be greatly assisted with your talents."

"Well, if I can do anything to help out this movement, I'll join you," said Mystia. She turned around to look at Wriggle and Rumia, who shrank back nervously as the sparrow's eyes fell on them. "How about you two? You said you'd be interested in supporting the movement earlier, _right_?" The sharp inflections she put on the last word of her sentence made such an impact that Daiyousei actually audibly whimpered from it.

"I guess we did say that," admitted Wriggle, "but—"

"Great!" interrupted Mystia harshly. "That works out wonderfully."

"Now, wait just a moment!" shouted Cirno hotly. "If they don't want to do it, don't force them to do it!" She stopped talking for a moment to look Mystia in the eyes. "You've been acting like a big jerk today, Mystia, and I don't like it!"

"Please calm down," said Reisen smoothly. "We are certainly not forcing any of you to be a part of this. Feel free to make your choice based on what you personally would like to do."

Even after Reisen said this, Wriggle and Rumia could not help but notice Mystia looking daggers at the two of them. Neither of them could understand the cold, callous personality that their sparrow friend had adopted, and the thought of what she might do if they did not submit to her wishes seemed terrifying.

After exchanging a worried glance with her firefly friend, Rumia stepped forward. "I-it's all right," she mumbled. "We'll help you with this movement of yours."

"Marvelous!" exclaimed Reisen, clasping her hands together. "Well, since the three of you are now part of this movement, please come with me. We have lots of work to do to prepare ourselves for the massive change Gensokyo is going to undergo." As Mystia, followed by a reluctant Wriggle and Rumia, walked to the rabbit's side, Reisen looked at Cirno and Daiyousei with a kind smile. "If either of you happens to change your mind, you can find me at the base of Youkai Mountain. I must take care of some business right now, but I'll be there in about three hours."

As Reisen, Mystia, Wriggle, and Rumia departed from the corner for parts unknown, Cirno remained still, grumbling to herself with a pouty expression on her face. "Even after they find out that rabbit is the one we're looking to beat up, they just follow her blindly," she muttered to herself. "Those idiots! It really pisses me off." She angrily launched a spread of ice from her fingertips over the grass around her, creating an effect similar to a focused area of frost.

"Er… Cirno," started Daiyousei cautiously, "maybe it wasn't all bad. She did tell us where she's going to be in three hours, after all. We could tell some of the powerful humans and youkai about this, and they could go to Youkai Mountain and capture Reisen when she goes there."

Cirno tilted her head as her mind attempted to process Daiyousei's idea, and her pouting face began to slightly brighten after a few moments. "You have a point there," she agreed, "even though it doesn't change the fact that those idiots are definitely gonna run into trouble doing whatever it is they're doing." The fairy turned around to face the front of the mansion and began to sprint towards the gate. "Yo, China!" she yelled. "We got some information you're gonna wanna know!" It came as a surprise to Cirno, however, to see that the gatekeeper post was empty, and Meiling was nowhere to be found.

* * *

><p>As Eirin Yagokoro took her first steps into Voile Library, she took a very thorough look around her to properly survey her surroundings. "So this is where we're going to be plotting to stop a bunch of terrorist youkai, huh?" she said dubiously. "A library?"<p>

"Yes, a library," Patchouli deadpanned from her seat at the table, "and a pretty nice one, in my opinion."

"Very well," Eirin replied. "I suppose it's not the worst place to have a group come together at." As she walked from the door to join Patchouli, Marisa, Chen, and Alice at the table, her eyes gazed upon the unconscious body of Yukari that was still lying on the floor. "What happened to her?"

"Drugged by the devil librarian assistant," answered Marisa casually, as if a sentence like that was as normal as answering what someone wanted for breakfast. Of course, in a land like Gensokyo, it was very close to being normal in the first place.

"So right now, if Reimu told me correctly, we're tracking Youmu's progress at following this escaped Koakuma," said Eirin. "Is that the only lead we're working on right now?"

"Pretty much," Alice replied. "There's a surprisingly low amount of work we need to do here right now. In fact, Marisa and I were mostly just playing with my Shanghai and Hourai dolls for the past hour or so."

Before Eirin could open her mouth to say anything in response, she was interrupted by the sound of the library door slamming open. Meiling sprinted into the large room and nearly threw herself at Patchouli. "Patchouli! There's something you need to see now!" she shouted desperately, her face flushed and damp from sweat.

Patchouli, who had fallen to the ground from the sudden entrance of the gatekeeper, groaned and looked up at the panting girl. "Yes? What on Earth caused you to rush into a library at almost eleven o'clock at night and nearly give me a heart attack?"

Meiling took a moment or two to regain her breath before speaking again. "W-where is Remilia?" she asked.

"Probably still in her room recovering from getting stabbed in the foot by Sakuya," said Patchouli with a shrug. "What do you need me to see right now, though?"

Meiling only pointed to the doorway to the library. Walking in slowly and carefully with a grim expression on her face was a tall woman with short blonde hair contained in a white hat. She wore a very long white dress with an indigo design printed on the center, and had nothing on her feet but white socks. Her most interesting feature, however, was the presence of nine long and bushy fox tails coming out from behind her, each golden in color with white tips. As she walked towards the group sitting at the table, all of her tails hung downward and touched the floor as if they were sweeping it for dust.

"Ran-shama!" shouted Chen in glee, and the young cat jumped up from her place at the table to give the fox a tight embrace.

"It's nice to see you too, Chen," said Ran. Though she gained a warm smile as she watched the young cat wrap her arms around her middle, the sad expression did not leave her eyes.

"Would you mind explaining why your presence here is so severely affecting Meiling, Ran?" asked Patchouli, confusion filling her eyes.

"Of course," said Ran. She turned her head away from both Chen and the group sitting the tables, allowing nobody to see the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. "It's against my will that I come to the Scarlet Devil Mansion right now. I tried avoiding it for as long as I could, but it got harder over time. At this point, I simply couldn't fight it any longer. So, here I am, as a shikigami under the orders of my mistress."

"Orders?" asked Chen, who looked up from her hug at Ran's eyes. "Why did Mistress Yukari want you to come here?"

Ran attempted to sniff back the tears to prevent them from falling, but the lump forming in her throat only became larger as a result. "It's not what Yukari-sama wanted, but evidently, the order was given nonetheless. You see… I… I-I'm the one Reisen is using to carry out her plans. My order was to murder Remilia Scarlet by midnight tonight."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]: **Welcome back, all! Here we are at the end of the chapter before the last chapter of Act I. Seeing as this segment of the story is coming to a close, I figured it would be a nice time to thank everyone who has reviewed so far. Thank you all very much!

To clear up the minor misunderstanding stemming from the previous chapter, Remilia was planning on checking on Flandre before the issue about finding out she had become a human arose. Since she was busy dealing with it, she forgot about going to see her sister. This, of course, gave Flandre the chance to escape the basement. For the second point, even though the plot about Remilia Scarlet's assassination attempt reaches its climax next chapter, our favorite vampire sisters will not fade from the spotlight. And, yes, I did make an allusion to he-who-does-not-deserve-to-be-named as the sparkly vampire. He was the best example I could think of a pathetic excuse for a vampire! Haha.

Who was the mysterious person Koakuma was calling? It probably shouldn't be too hard to figure out from the clues given, but her identity will still remain a secret for the time being.

In case you were wondering, the youkai that gives Reisen directions does not have a name. Since pretty much every small or weak fairy and youkai has a pivotal role in the plot, I just decided to use an unnamed one to fill the role of helping Reisen. If you want her to have a name, I suppose you could call her Saishoku, since she seems to like vegetables despite being a youkai.

Mystia certainly seems to be acting meaner than usual, doesn't she? Even though the little sparrow has been arrogant in the past, this definitely seems to be a bit abnormal for her.

So, the next chapter will bring us up to midnight, at which point Reisen has promised the Remilia would meet her end. Why has Ran received the order to perform the killing, and will she go through with it? Why does Reisen need the help of Mystia, Rumia, and Wriggle, and what will the strongest ice fairy do about it? What sorts of things will Flandre do with her new freedom? Will Youmu discover the identity of the mysterious person that Koakuma called, and will she be able to stop whoever it is from continuing her plans? Don't miss Chapter 6 of Temporal Quintessence.


	6. 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM

For most average people in the world, it would seem a very unlikely event to be calmly and civilly sitting in front of a person who has made it clear that their intentions are to murder you. Remilia Scarlet, however, was likely as far away from the category of "average people" as possible by the laws of physics. Following this, it should not be surprising to find the young vampire sitting behind the desk in her study with her companions Patchouli and Sakuya on either side of her and staring right at Ran Yakumo, who had tucked several of her fluffy tails beneath her to make a comfortable surface for sitting. Chen, the shikigami's shikigami, had made it very clear that she was not going to let Ran "escape" from her sight again, and therefore the cat was happily wrapping one of her mistress's tails around her body and nuzzling her cheek against it. Although Ran was typically sensitive about others touching her tails, gazing at the purring Chen getting so much pleasure from them rendered her helpless against forming a smile on her lips.

"So, if what Patchouli says is true, you have come here to murder me, correct?" Remilia asked, her voice surprisingly casual for the topic at hand. Elbows on the desk, she pulled herself closer to the fox, intently staring her down.

Ran, in response, softly dipped her head, her perked-up ears flattening against her head. "Indeed, that is what I have been ordered to accomplish tonight." While the logical thing to do after hearing this may have been to restrain Ran, the general feel of melancholy radiating from the fox made Remilia raise an eyebrow more than anything.

"I think an explanation for just what you mean behind that is in order, Ran," Patchouli said. "If you were really aspiring to kill Miss Remilia, waltzing into her mansion and stating your intentions without making any attempts to complete them would be a bit counterproductive, correct?" Patchouli placed the great brown tome she had been carrying on the desk and clasped her hands together behind her.

Ran released an uneasy sigh, carefully contemplating her response. After taking a moment to look at each person in the room and the title on the cover of Patchouli's book, which read "The Subjection of Shikigami", the fox finally nodded. "I agree; it's only fair if you know exactly what's going on." Ran patted the purring Chen on her head and cleared her throat.

"Seeing that your skin is pale and your fangs are once again protruding from your mouth, may I assume that you have already discovered Yukari-sama's transforming of you into a human and convinced her to undo it, Miss Remilia?" An affirmative nod from Remilia and Sakuya was the response, and Ran's expression brightened ever so slightly. "Well done; that makes my job here easier. If Yukari-sama was able to realize that she was the cause of your transformation, I can hazard a guess that she connected this to the memories of Reisen appearing before her as she woke up. She wouldn't have remembered performing the actual task, but she must have assumed she had done it during the period of her memory wipe.

"You're probably wondering how I know about the precise details of the incident that took place this afternoon, right?" Ran induced a cough to create an excuse to look away from the others, during which time she wiped her golden eyes free of the moisture that had begun to linger in them. Chen briefly paused her production of content mews to look up at her mistress with curiosity, and Patchouli and Remilia discretely exchanged worried looks. "Well, the truth is… I was there to witness it. When I heard voices coming from my mistress's bedroom, I immediately rushed in to find out what was wrong. It was there and then that I saw the lunar rabbit staring right into the eyes of my beloved Yukari-sama and giving her strict instructions. I immediately pulled out one of my most powerful spell cards and commanded Reisen to leave at that instant or be utterly annihilated in battle. This declaration, as Cirno and her group of imbeciles know all too well, has always been effective at scaring off any intruding fairies or youkai. Reisen, however, did not move an inch, not even to look at me. Instead, she simply stated, 'My mind directly tapped into Yukari's nervous system at the moment. If you don't wish for her to receive immediate, permanent, and severe neural or spinal damage or even death, stay where you are and don't even think about attacking me.'"  
>After quoting Reisen, Ran could no longer be discrete about her tears, and she let them flow freely from her eyes as she softly wept. "There, there. It's okay, Ran-shama," Chen said in a comforting manner, affectionately wrapping her arms around her mistress's waist in an embrace. Patchouli, Remilia, and Sakuya all looked on with sympathetic glances.<p>

When a few moments to release tears had gone by, Ran wiped her damp cheeks with her hands and managed an apologetic smile at her shikigami. "Thank you, Chen," she said. "I know I shouldn't cry, but I suppose there are some times in life when one has no choice but to. Being there to observe Yukari-sama in peril and being utterly helpless to save her was one of the most horrible moments I can remember experiencing in my life. It's something I hope none of you ever have to experience in your lives."

Sakuya shuffled her feet uneasily. "Indeed," she said. "I'm counting myself very lucky that this situation has not ever happened to me and my lady. However, how does this all relate to Miss Remilia's plight?"

Ran filled her lungs with a deep breath and let it out again slowly. "I'm certain Yukari-sama would not remember this, but as Reisen was controlling her, she gave not one, but two commands. The first one, as you know, was to turn you, Miss Remilia, into a human. The second one… was to order me to murder the Scarlet Devil tonight."

"And she just went along with it with no resistance?" Remilia asked, smirking and crossing her arms as if Yukari showing weakness somehow benefited her. "I do hope her pitiful case of subservience toward a lowly animal isn't contagious, for it would be a dreadful shame if I were to become the moronic slave of a rabbit as well!"

"So that's what you think of Mistress Yukari, huh…" Chen softly growled, extending her fingernails into cat claws and glaring at the vampire. Ran, however, chuckled amusedly to herself; it would be a lie to say that critical words about her mistress had never crossed her mind in the past.

"Now, now, my lady," Sakuya said gently, sensing the animosity that was radiating from the nekomata after her mistress's last comment, "I may not care for the boundary youkai any more than you, but let's not forget that she was being controlled by Reisen's terrible illusions at the time. I don't think anyone would disobey the rabbit in circumstances like that."

This seemed to cool down the anger of the cat, and Ran cleared her throat to return the attention to her. "Anyway," she continued, "Yukari-sama relayed the command, directly ordering me to kill Remilia Scarlet. When this was done, Reisen walked straight out of the bedroom and left Mayohiga just like that. I would have chased after her and given her a most painful punishment, but I was so shocked and overcome by what I had just heard Yukari-sama order me to do that I simply stood in place for at least two minutes. Murdering an innocent vampire, of course, is probably the very last thing on the list of tasks I would do for my mistress. After I was able to recompose myself, I remembered how my power and authority over Chen weakens as we get further apart, and so I came up with the idea to flee to the other side of Gensokyo. If I could distance myself from my mistress, I theorized, perhaps I would be able to keep myself from fulfilling the order I was given."

"So that's why you wouldn't come when Mistress Yukari summoned you!" exclaimed Chen, who had finally pieced together the events of the evening in her head.

Ran smiled warmly at her shikigami. "Precisely. However, as the minutes dragged on, my body began to feel more and more compelled to approach the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Eventually, no matter how strongly my mind commanded me to stay put, I couldn't stop myself anymore. That was the moment when I entered this building and told everyone of my orders."

Chen scratched behind her ears in puzzlement, cocking her head slightly. "I'm sorry, Ran-shama, but I don't get it. You've said, 'My apologies, Yukari-sama, but I can't complete that request' to her in the past. Sure, she'd hit you with her parasol for it, but it still meant you could deny something she asked of you. So, why can't you do that now?" The cat pointed downward toward the floor. "Heck, she's still loaded up with drugs and lying unconscious on the floor of the library, so disobeying her should be even easier now."

Ran placed a hand on her shikigami's shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. "Believe me, Chen, I wish it were that simple. However…"

"The relationship between master and shikigami is quite a powerful bond," finished Patchouli, who cleared her throat and motioned to the book she had placed on the table. "When a creature becomes a shikigami, she not only submits to master by giving up her free will, but also her complete mental and body processing. Simply put, the shikigami's health is directly related to the way she serves her master, and if the master wished it so, she could easily kill her underling." The librarian strode over to sitting fox and addressed her directly (without any need to kneel down, for Patchouli was short enough to reach Ran's seated eye level). "Yukari asked you to kill Miss Remilia in the form of a direct order, correct?"

"Indeed. Reisen stressed the point that Yukari-sama should word it in the form of 'I command you, Ran.'" The kitsune tilted her head at angle to jog her memory. "In fact, I think this is the first time Yukari-sama has ever given me an actual command. Usually she only asks me to do her bidding."

Patchouli took a moment to groan and rub her temples with her thumb and forefinger, pacing back and forth between Remilia and Ran. "I can understand why she wouldn't ever give you direct commands. Reisen, or whomever she is an underling to if that is the case," she concluded, "thought this plan through quite clearly. From what I have read, when a master orders her shikigami by directly wording the request in that way, it becomes a mandatory command that cannot be denied under any circumstances. If the shikigami attempts to actively refuse the command, her body becomes unable to handle the idea of disobeying a direct order and it self-destructs, shutting down all vital processes and inducing death. The same thing has also happened if the shikigami does not attempt to fulfill the command to the absolute best of her ability. To put it simply, if Ran does not succeed in killing Miss Remilia or attempting to with her best effort by fighting tooth and nail, she will die herself."

While Remilia gulped and looked downward at her shoes uncomfortably and Sakuya put a hand to her mouth, Chen gasped and stared at her mistress in disbelief. "You can't be serious!" she cried. "Ran-shama, that's not true, is it?"

Ran's eyes slowly traveled all around the study before returning to Chen's. The fox brought one of her bushy tails up towards her side, and she stroked its soft fibers while planning her next words carefully. "I'm afraid so, Chen," she said. "While fleeing this evening, I plotted out a flowchart of all my possible options and their results in my mind. Refusing to obey, letting myself get captured while halfheartedly trying to murder Remilia, legitimately attempting the assassination and getting attacked by all the powerful beings that live here… every outcome I could think of led to my death. The only way I would be able to escape this dilemma alive would be to have Yukari-sama cancel the order herself. By the time I realized this, however… she was already forced unconscious by the sleeping drugs in the food she was given."

"This can't be true," Chen softly murmured, trying not to let the others hear the quiver in her voice that signified tears. She turned her back on the other four beings in the room and fixed her gaze on the elegantly decorated walls of Remilia's study. From this angle, the cat could see a twitching string of several rainbow crystals hidden behind a thick curtain, but she didn't think anything of it.

"I'm sorry, Chen," Patchouli said, her voice containing a surprising amount of sympathy considering its stolid owner. "Truly, I am. I know this is terrible, but it is indeed the reality of the situation. Koakuma must have drugged Yukari to ensure that she wouldn't be able to stop her shikigami from completing the task. It might be a bit inappropriate to say this, but I am impressed on how clever the whole plan is, killing someone by using a powerful youkai who literally cannot refuse to comply."

Remilia drummed her fingers on the desk, staring intently at one specific crack that had snaked its way all throughout the wood. At one point, the crack diverged into five others that went their separate ways for a little while before fusing together again. "So… now that we've identified the whole situation, what do you plan to do about it? I may be an undead vampire, but I still would prefer to not die tonight." She giggled softly at the irony of her statement and began tracing her finger along one of the paths of the crack.

"But of course," Ran said. "I have no intention of being the one to end your life. To be honest, I made up my mind on what I should do before I even set foot in this mansion." The fox picked herself up from the ground and slowly paced towards the desk and the three girls behind it. "Patchouli. Or Sakuya. Or whoever it has to be, since it really doesn't make a large difference. Every passing second, the urge to complete my mistress's order and kill Miss Remilia rises by a small increment. It won't be long before the urge dominates my willpower and I actually attempt to fulfill the command." She looked at the two directly with earnest golden eyes. "I know there's no way out of this situation for me, but I don't want to drag the vampire down with me. So, promise me this: you'll stop me before I have a chance to complete the order I was given. If you need to use lethal force, then so be it."

"B-but Ran-shama…" Chen whimpered quietly from her corner. "I don't want you to die." It took all her power to keep her tears from spilling out from her eyes, but the young shikigami managed it, as she did not want to have a complete breakdown in public.

Ran turned away from Patchouli and Sakuya to face her nekomata shikigami. Taking a few strides, she covered the distance of the room in seconds and wrapped her arms tightly around Chen's body. The kitsune tried very hard to formulate words of comfort for her young cat, but even after several moments of intense brainstorming, no such words came to mind. She decided to simply settle on holding Chen in a loving embrace. The three members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion found that they could only look on with sympathetic gazes, and even Remilia couldn't bring herself to say or think any pompous remarks. It was quite an abnormal moment to be witnessed in the land of Gensokyo.

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><p>While the land encompassed by the Hakurei Border was not overly large (likely only a few dozen kilometers in diameter), it still posed a formidable challenge of crossing from one side to another for those without a fast method of travel. Although Koakuma possessed wings on her back, her flight speed was anything but impressive. In fact, even her running speed, which was one of the worst of anyone's in Gensokyo, was faster, and it was therefore the method she was using to traverse the roads on her journey. It took a great deal of effort on Youmu's part to follow the devil at such a slow pace as to not be seen, but she had managed to do so for the past hour. At about quarter to eleven, Youmu had taken notice that the path Koakuma was taking seemed very familiar, and as the open fields began to return to a dense and thick forest climate, it dawned on her that it was the same route she had taken earlier that evening to get to Kourindou.<p>

Koakuma stopped her running gait to rest against one of the trees marking the beginning of the Forest of Magic, and Youmu ducked behind a particularly overgrown shrub in turn to stay hidden out of sight. The moon, currently in its first quarter phase, was able to shine a weak beam of light into the dark depths of the forest, and the antique shop along its borders was lit up. After taking a few moments to catch her breath from all of the running she had to do, Koakuma took one look around her. Failing to notice the gardener behind the bush lingering outside of the forest, the devil rushed the final meters necessary to reach Kourindou. Instead of walking through the front door like a typical patron would do, she slipped around the perimeter to the very rear of the building and entered the back door.

"So this is where your little base of operations is located," Youmu muttered, peering at the moonlit shop her object of pursuit had entered. "I should have known I couldn't trust that sneaky little shopkeeper, especially after he framed Lady Yuyuko and everything." Without delay, Youmu reached out and grabbed the floating Myon, holding it up to her face. After a second or two, the phantom changed its color into one resembling a rich shade of lavender.

"_Yes?_" Patchouli's voice echoed from inside of the ghostly spirit. After the conversation she had just had with Ran, it would make sense that her voice would carry a bit of angst in it, but the gardener failed to notice it.

"I have some good news," Youmu announced. "Koakuma finally reached her destination, it seems. If she noticed me following her, she's hiding it very well, so I think we've finally found whom she's dealing with."

"_Wonderful_," Patchouli replied, although her gloomy tone easily overwhelmed her optimistic words. "_Where has she gone off to, exactly?_"

"It's—" Youmu started, but stopped as she was interrupted by a short echo of static after her first word. "Huh?" The gardener held up Myon closer to her eyes and carefully looked it over. The lavender color signifying the communication with Patchouli was rapidly fading away, and in its place was a shade of blue so light it was very difficult to directly distinguish from white.

"Um…" Youmu began, "is there someone else trying to talk to me here? Who is this?"

"_Yoooooouuuuummmmmmmuu!_" an unmistakable voice wailed from within the phantom. Youmu was so surprised from the very sudden and loud shout that she actually dropped Myon from her grasp, letting it fall to the ground.

"L-lady Yuyuko?" she stammered, quickly picking the phantom up off the ground again to talk through it.

"_You guessed it!_"

Youmu groaned. "Why are you calling me, Lady Yuyuko? Didn't Patchouli tell you I'm on an important mission right now?"

"_Oh, forget that_," Yuyuko said cheerfully. "_I'm still waiting on that dinner you promised to make me ages ago!_" The voice of the ghost princess was much louder than that of the librarian's, so Youmu tried to shove Myon into the bush to muffle the sound.

"Please," Youmu hissed, "keep your voice down! If I get caught, this whole thing is going to fail."

"_Youmu, you silly girl, aren't you forgetting the number one rule of serving me? 'The princess and her dinner come before all.' I want to eat something now!_"

"My god, you're in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, for crying out loud! I'm sure Sakuya or someone would be happy to make you a snack while I'm here spying on Koakuma at Kourindou."

Yuyuko laughed whimsically, her voice echoing loudly into the silent forest. "_Spying? How rude of you! I suppose all of those lessons on manner and etiquette have fallen on deaf ears then?_"

Youmu sighed and slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'll make something for you after I'm done with this mission, okay? Right now is a really bad time for you to be talking incoherently about pointless things."

In response, Youmu heard a slight rustling noise from the other end of the communication as if the device was being moved. "_Hey there, Youmu_," a different voice with an equally loud volume greeted. "_This is Tewi. So, listen: I've been locked up in this stuffy little room with only your ghost princess friend as company for more than two hours now. We've been chatting and getting to know each other for a while, and she seems to be a really friendly and nice person. Still… she keeps mentioning about how much she loves the taste of a good rabbit stew, and she's been looking at me kind of funny for the past few minutes. You think you could maybe finish up with what you're doing there and help an innocent rabbit out? Thanks._"

It would seem as though a recurring trend had emerged in people who run very fast being very impatient, and Youmu was no exception. She knew that being disrespectful and talking rudely to her mistress often ended badly for her, for although Yuyuko often seemed airheaded and would easily forget ordinary things, she had a remarkably good memory regarding what she wanted to remember and would often spring punishments on Youmu for things even the gardener had forgotten about. In situations like this, however, one must sometimes make an exception to rules about being polite to ghost princesses.

"Lady Yuyuko, are you still there?" Youmu asked in an unusually calm voice, though her heavy panting was evidence of the fact that she was actually not calm at all.

"_I sure am!_" Yuyuko answered happily. "_Now, about that dinner we're planning: I want two grilled chicken breasts, but make sure they're not overcooked. The first one needs to have a spicy wasabi marinade, and the second one—_"

"**Shut up!**" Youmu bellowed as loudly as her vocal cords could manage. At this point, she figured that if anyone had overheard her conversation, they would have already done so beforehand. The gardener gave her phantom a sharp punch in the fluffy center, and its color changed back to a pure white. Even if it is not rigidly connected, hurting an appendage of one's body is a rather painful practice, but Youmu didn't mind. It felt surprisingly satisfying to completely shatter the silence in the Forest of Magic, and so she proudly emerged from the bush and marched towards the old building of Kourindou.

About halfway between the overgrown shrub and her destination, Youmu became aware of a very subtle tickling sensation on the back of her neck akin to that of a leaf or flower petal brushing past the skin. In fact, that was exactly what the gardener initially guessed it was by the way it felt, and she casually brought her hand up to swat it away. When her hand connected with the object touching her neck, however, Youmu felt her stomach contort in sudden shock as she realized she was actually touching something hard, cold, and metallic.

"Don't tell me…" Youmu gulped inaudibly to herself. Very slowly, she began to rotate her head around to identify the source of the object touching her neck. Peering into the darkness of the night, her blue eyes made contact with a pair of red ones. Although there was sufficient moonlight to see the person behind those eyes, Youmu could have identified her based solely on the crimson orbs piercing the darkness. After all, the personality and demeanor of a person can often be determined simply by observing the appearance of their eyes, and there was only one woman in all of Gensokyo with such a temperament to reflect the razor-sharp, cruel, immobilizing gaze Youmu was being subjected to. Any other person ambushing the swordmaster would quickly find herself collapsed on the ground with a blade across her neck, but this particular one only chortled to the night as she received no resistance at all. Youmu kept her hands away from either of her two swords to avoid getting into a fight she could not possibly walk away from victorious.

"Good evening, Miss Youmu," the woman greeted. As soon as those first words were released from her mouth, Youmu recognized the voice as being the same one that Koakuma had talked to over an hour ago. While the manner by which she had spoken to the devil had been fierce and intimidating, her current voice was as silky as the surface of a completely tranquil lake and carried an utterly irresistible charm to it. It was this pseudo-friendly way of speaking along with a charismatic smile to match it that made Youmu's heart beat like a timpani; she knew she would have been in less danger if the woman appeared angry and threatening.

"Um… h-hello, Yuuka," Youmu stammered, her eyes fixed on the metal object, which she had identified as the tip of an umbrella, touching her neck. When staring down the umbrella belonging to Yuuka Kazami, one should always be aware that he or she could be blown away by a heavily focused blast of energy at any given moment, and Youmu knew this only too well. No matter how fast she could run, the speed of light would always be faster, so attempting to flee would be futile.

"Such lovely weather we're having, no?" Yuuka said amiably. It brought her much pleasure to steadily increase the tension and fear in a situation, and making seemingly innocent small talk was one of the best ways to do that. "What brings you to the Forest of Magic at such a late hour of the night?"

"Well… I was just…"

"Following a certain red-headed demon friend of mine?" Yuuka guessed. As she smiled pleasantly and gently rotated her umbrella, she noticed that the gardener was slowly attempting to back away from her. Yuuka, in turn, shook her short, wavy, green hair lightly and advanced toward her.

"Actually, no," Youmu answered quickly. "I had just gone on an errand for Lady Yuyuko and lost my way and ended up in the Forest of Magic and was just about to leave, you know?" She grinned innocently and began to turn around to escape when she suddenly felt the arm of Yuuka wrapping around her back and resting on her shoulder. It was a friendly motion that a close friend might do, but the fact that Yuuka was grasping her a little too tightly and the flowery umbrella was still pressed against her neck showed that the gesture was anything but affable.

"Nonsense," Yuuka laughed, her lovely voice ringing into the night air. "I was just putting a kettle of tea on the stove. It would be quite rude of me to not invite you inside for a cup, wouldn't it? Please, do come in for a bit before you leave." She leaned in toward Youmu's right ear and lowered her voice to a gentle whisper. "That is, of course, if you don't wish to suffer a most painful and brutal murder."

Youmu shuddered to herself as she heard these words along with feeling of Yuuka's arm holding her tightly to the youkai's body. Within that body and beneath the layers of a white long sleeve shirt and a red-plaid vest and skirt, there lay an enormous fountain of pure strength and energy. In fact, Yuuka was likely the strongest youkai of all of Gensokyo in terms of raw power, even beating the mighty oni. If she wished to, she could effortlessly kill the gardener with a simple motion of her arm by strangling, choking, or snapping her neck. However, Youmu could tell by the way that the flower youkai was forcibly escorting her toward Kourindou under the pretense of tea that she was not going to die immediately. Being captured by Yuuka and knowing this, of course, only made Youmu more terrified of what was going to happen to her in the near future.

* * *

><p>While Yuyuko's hand fan had reverted from the viridian color it had displayed during contact with Youmu to its typical blue and red gradient one a couple of minutes ago, she still held it up to her face as if she were talking to her servant.<p>

Tewi, who was reclining against the wall on the other side of the tiny room, yawned and looked at her ghostly companion. "Err... you do know that she, well, hung up on you quite a while ago?"

"Hah!" Yuyuko chuckled, lightly fanning herself. "You're a funny one, little bunny! Do I look like an idiot to you?"

Tewi snickered to herself. "I know I'm a good liar, but all the same, I think I'll decline on commenting on that." Reimu Hakurei, who was sitting on a chair in between the two detained in the room, started snoring loudly and mumbled out loud in her sleep about Marisa stealing the donations from her shrine. "Man. I knew China was a terrible guard, but I never thought I'd see someone who's worse than her!"

"Let's see exactly how awful she is, shall we?" Yuyuko donned a mischievous smirk on her face, walked over to the snoring shrine maiden, and slapped her across her face with the paper fan.

"Nnngghh…" Reimu groaned while maintaining her unconscious state. "Yukari… go ask Suika… stop pouring sake in the donation box." This caused Tewi to burst out in giggles.

"She's out like a light!" the rabbit exclaimed, laughing merrily at the sleeping sentry. After a moment Tewi reached into her pink dress sand pulled out a worn wooden hammer. It wasn't the comically oversized type she was often seen with (for Patchouli would have never detained someone while letting them keep such an enormous weapon on hand), but it was still rather large among tools. "You think we should maybe up the 'whack-factor'? I'm still a little irked at her for dragging me into this whole mess, you know." Tewi produced a devilish sort of grin she often used during her pranks on Reisen and began to slowly approach the unconscious Reimu with her hammer in hand.

"That would be pretty amusing," Yuyuko agreed, "but do you suppose you could perhaps hold off on that idea for a little bit?" The ghost princess began to venture towards the doorway of Koakuma's former bedroom and turned her head back to look at the rabbit. "Since Youmu's obviously too incompetent to understand the importance of the little things in life, it looks like it's up to me to go to Kourindou and teach her myself. Having a grumpy Reimu with a minor headache trying to stop me would definitely put a damper on things, don't you think?"

Tewi's rabbit ears drooped slightly in disappointment, but she shrugged all the same. "All right, I gotcha. If Reimu wakes up while you're gone, do you want me to cover for you?"

Yuyuko smiled gratefully at her companion. "You'd do that for me? That's so sweet of you, you delicious rabbit!"

Tewi leaned against the wall with a confident expression on her face. "It's nothing; I'm always happy to do a favor for my friends." Any wise person who has had a great deal of experience in Gensokyo would know to never ask Tewi for a favor, for she was the sort of rabbit who would act like a shark and force others into her debt. However, a wiser person would know also to never attempt to fool Yuyuko, for the amount of intellect the ghost possessed beneath her ditzy behavior was astounding. Each knew what the other was capable of without even needing to hear it, and so Tewi decided to be truly honest for once with her new friend to avoid being beaten at her own game.

"So, Reimu," Tewi said to the sleeping shrine maiden. "I seem to remember you telling me about who you're madly in love with, but I can't recall if you said it was Marisa, Yukari, or Suika. Would you mind jogging my memory?" She stifled a sudden giggle in the same way a child in the middle of performing a prank call would.

"I…" Reimu almost inaudibly murmured, "…yeah."

"I, yeah?" Tewi repeated. "Oh, you mean Aya? I never knew you had a thing for crow tengu, Reimu, but if that's what you're into, okay then!" The rabbit grinned and gave the ghost princess at the door a thumbs-up sign. "Sounds like we're gonna be in for an interesting article of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper tomorrow morning, aren't we?"

As Yuyuko gradually let the door creak open, she was surprised to hear virtually no sounds echoing in from the spacious library. The only distinct noise that the ghost could hear (besides the snoring of Reimu behind her) was the gentle and steady ticking of the grand bronze clock in the center of the room. The gears within the machine were impossible to see, of course, but Yuyuko could feel the rate at which they were ticking by the way each hand slowly rotate along at its own interval. "My, is it already twenty minutes to midnight?" she wondered out loud. "I suppose time flies when you're trapped in a tiny room like that."

"Indeed," a voice from the center of the room echoed back at her. "It's already been forty minutes since everyone else left the library, but it feels like a lot less."

Yuyuko was slightly startled when she heard a reply, for it initially seemed as though she was the only one in the library besides the unconscious Yukari in the corner. After a careful examination of the entire room, however, she was able to make out the profile of a girl accompanied by two flying dolls beneath the dim ceiling lights. The girl was sitting at the center table with her back to Yuyuko and could almost be mistaken for a statue if not for the dolls orbiting around her. "Oh, you're still here, Alice?"

"That's right," Alice replied without turning around. "Yukari got drugged, Reimu's asleep, Koakuma fled the mansion, Youmu's out tracking Koakuma, Meiling's probably guarding the front gate, the rest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Yakumos are off dealing with their incident, and Marisa got bored and said she was going to take a stroll around the hallways. So, that leaves me here at the library." She looked behind her shoulder at Yuyuko with an uninterested glance and motioned to the smaller doll. "Shanghai told me she heard you talking about following your servant."

Yuyuko smiled, but she tightened her grip on her fan as if preparing for battle. "Yes, I am. That won't be a problem for you, will it?"

Alice shrugged her shoulders and sighed indifferently. "To be honest, I really don't care. I know I agreed to help out this operation and everything, but I'd much rather be home in bed or working on my latest doll design. If you want to leave and find Youmu, I'm not going to stop you."

After thanking her, Yuyuko began to stroll towards the exit of the library. "By the way," she said while in the doorway, "if you don't want to be here, why haven't you left and gone home?"

Alice threw her hands in the air exasperatedly, and the sudden motion caused Shanghai and Hourai to nervously scatter. "Beats me! I suppose I did say I was going to help out on resolving this incident. The general opinion people have of me is low enough, and abandoning everyone partway through wouldn't help matters, you know?" She smirked amusedly. "Besides, I probably shouldn't give that purple librarian another reason to insult me."

"Very well. Have fun with the rest of your night!" Alice's explanation was sufficient for Yuyuko, and she promptly exited the room, leaving Alice alone with her two dolls.

Alice turned back to her two dolls, which were sitting on the table and communicating much with their wordless facial expressions. "Yes, I know it's very late at night, but I don't want to go to sleep until we've reached the conclusion of this situation. You can stay awake until then, can't you?" She smiled at her last question and lightly ruffled the hair atop the head of Hourai, who began to grow a rosy blush on her artificial cheeks. "What am I saying? What kind of nonliving doll would need to sleep, anyway?"

As Alice, Shanghai, and Hourai returned to sitting in a bored silence, the ticking clock was once again the only audible sound in the Voile Library.

* * *

><p>Under normal circumstances, it is already quite a difficult task to understand another's feelings without being well-versed at empathy. Very often a person with a stolid and unmoving expression may actually be harboring panic and fear within, especially when trapped in a deeply troubling dilemma. While Chen had known Ran for many years and had established a connection with her as a shikigami, the young nekomata could not read her mistress's emotions at all as the two of them sat together in silence in the otherwise-empty study.<p>

Chen turned to face the kitsune sitting next to her who had dipped her head and was focusing on the floor. "Ran-shama," she whispered quietly to avoid breaking the silence so forcefully, "aren't you frightened about what's going to happen? We've only got a few minutes before you… well…"

"Die?" Ran suggested. She smiled weakly at Chen and gently slipped her right hand into the nekomata's left one. "When you live to be more than 800 years old, you eventually stop worrying about things like that. I mean, everyone has to experience it at one point or another, don't they?"

"Not Kaguya and Mokou," Chen interrupted. "They get to live forever!" She said it with a certain amount of stubbornness as if an effective counterargument would keep Ran from dying.

Ran shook her head patiently. "Oh, Chen," she said, "that's not true at all. Those feuding girls kill each other on a daily basis; their bodies simply regenerate themselves after the point of death. Still, even after they die every day, does it look like either of them feels any bit of trauma?"

"Well, no," Chen admitted. "They seem like pretty happy people when they're not murdering each other."  
>"Exactly! Our friend Yuyuko is the same way; if death were really such a horrible experience, I doubt she would be able to have such a jolly attitude after it. So, to answer your question, no, I'm not very frightened about what's going to happen to me." She gave Chen's hand a quick, loving squeeze. "What about you, though? I know you're trying your best to be brave about this situation, and I'm very proud of you for doing so, but you don't need to put on an act if you don't want to."<p>

Chen forced her lips to form a smile. "Well, I guess I understand that you have no choice but to do this, and that's okay. Even so…" She slowly got to her feet and aligned her body with the front of Ran before hurling herself at the kitsune. When she made contact with the warm body of her surprised mistress, Chen wrapped her arms tightly around her back to form a tight embrace and let the tears openly flow from their ducts. "I-I'm gonna miss you so much. I love you, Mo—I mean, Ran-shama!"

Ran's only response was to pat the nekomata's back in the most comforting manner and whisper in her ear, "I love you too, my daughter." Ran and Chen had no genetic relationship, of course, but each secretly thought of their relationship with the other as being a mother-daughter type. Despite being unofficial, it was safe to say that the strength of the bond between the two of them almost certainly surpassed that of any of the actual parental relationships in Gensokyo. At this point, both wordlessly decided they could be candid and refer to each other in the manner of their true feelings.

"We'll see each other again someday, won't we?" Chen softly murmured. She wanted nothing more than to stay in Ran's warm caress and never leave it, but at the same time she wanted her sadness to be gently taken away by the kitsune's motherly hand.

Ran tenderly kissed the center of Chen's forehead and looked at her with fierce determination. "Chen, no matter where the Yama decides to sent me, if there is a way that I can use to see you again, I will find and use it. I promise."

"You promise?" Chen asked amid her tears.

Ran wrapped one of her tails of unrivaled-softness around her shikigami in a loving gesture. "I sure do."

Both animals heard a knocking on the door, and they looked up to see Patchouli Knowledge reentering the study holding both an ancient grimoire and a grave expression. "It's just about midnight," she said solemnly. "Are the two of you prepared for this?"

"I am," Ran answered. "Chen, are you ready?"  
>Chen savored the feeling of being in Ran's warm, loving embrace for the last few moments before she released herself from the grasp and nodded. "Let's just get this over with."<p>

Patchouli looked at the nekomata kindly and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Chen, maybe you should step out of the room for now. I don't know if you wish to see your mother and mistress killed."  
>"No!" Chen shouted firmly. She kept her hand gripped tightly around Ran's. "I want to be here with her until the very end."<p>

Patchouli looked to Ran for confirmation, and the kitsune nodded. "Patchouli," Ran began, "since you're the last person who will see me alive besides Chen, I would like to ask you my dying wish. Will you do it for me?"

"Please, tell me." The librarian was already feeling a large amount of guilt for being the one assigned to execute Ran, and she wanted to make the kitsune as comfortable as possible before her death.

"I'm not sure if Reisen is truly the one behind all of this, or if she is just answering to a higher being. Either way, anyone who would heartlessly snatch the life of a mother from her daughter, even if those titles are unofficial, is… well, there's no other word to use. Anyone who would do that is a _bitch_." She spat the final word of her sentence with disgust, a manner quite suitable for whomever it was referring to.

Chen looked quite surprised to hear her mistress say that, for although she would often listen to Yukari swearing, she had almost never heard Ran do so in her life.

"I'm sorry, Chen," Ran apologized, "but it's still true. So, Patchouli, my wish is this: resolve this incident. Find the one who has done this, and make sure that bitch is brought to justice! Please, do this for my sake and Chen's."

Patchouli was, as a habit, skeptical of making promises she was not certain she could keep, but she thought it would be unthinkable to deny the final request of the kitsune with such honest and pleading eyes. "All right," she decided. "I will do that for your sakes. I give you my word." Patchouli carefully balanced the grimoire on her knees and leafed through the pages within before she at last came to the one she was searching for. "Before Reimu passed the law that everyone must battle with the non-lethal spell card system, I designed a great number of spells to perform a myriad of tasks," she explained. "One of these, which I nicknamed 'Dormire ad Infinitum', causes exactly what its name implies: infinite sleep. Basically, I designed it to be a way to instantly induce death without bringing any pain at all to the victim. I knew it would have a use some day, and it would seem as though that day has come. May I use it on you now, Ran?"

Ran took a deep breath to calm the nerves that had begun to excite her stomach. "Yes, you may." She gripped her daughter's hand with a very tight force and smiled at her for the last time in all of her life. "Give Yukari-sama my apologies for having to resign from her service, all right?" She lowered her voice to one that only Chen could hear for her final words. "I'm sorry it had to end like this, but I know you'll grow up to be a strong, kind daughter I will be proud of. Don't forget the promise I made to you just now, for I certainly will not." Ran took a deep breath to fill her lungs with oxygen. "Farewell, Chen."

Chen's eyes, red from all the tears that had flowed out from them, continued to be damp, but she still held onto Ran's hand. As Patchouli began reciting a number of unknown magical words, she still held on. When Ran's eyes slowly shut, never to open again, she still held on. As Ran's lifeless body fell to the ground and its tails became still, she still held on.

The bronze clock down in the library began chiming to signal that midnight had come, and Chen kept her grip on Ran's hand strong until she herself lost consciousness and fainted, letting her body lie on Ran's.

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** First of all, I'd like to apologize for being rather late on this particular update. I did not intend to take so long to write it all out, but… things happen. I'll try my best to keep a more uniform updating schedule for the next chapters.

The original plan for the plot of this story has gone through so many revisions, the final one pretty much looks nothing like it. However, there is one moment that has been basically unchanged: that which you have just read, the death of Ran. It's, in my opinion, one of the most important moments in the story, and it will shape some of the decisions that both Chen and Yukari will make later on. It definitely wasn't easy to make the ultimate decision to kill Ran, but I feel like it's ultimately a vital part of the story.

Then, on the other side of the spectrum, there's Youmu, Yuyuko, and Tewi. To be honest, I'm a bit surprised by the lack of fanwork with interaction between Yuyuko and Tewi. Since the moment when I first saw both of them and their personalities, I thought, "These two would make good friends!" There is, of course, the problem about Yuyuko being a bottomless black hole and Tewi being an edible rabbit, but I still feel that they would get along quite well. Since the idea that Yuyuko wrote the letter has been dropped, she no longer needs to be concerned about Youmu acting strangely, and so the two go back into their regular habits. This, of course, leads to Youmu getting caught by the most sadistic person in all of Gensokyo, but maybe she deserved it for jumping to conclusions and distrusting her mistress so quickly.

The immediate threat against Remilia has been averted, but the day of destruction is only beginning. What plans does Yuuka have in store for Youmu, and what will happen to Yuyuko when she arrives there? What will be the next event in the growing conflict between Remilia and Flandre? Will Reisen finally be stopped, or will she manage to cause another unstoppable disaster? Be sure to read the seventh chapter of Temporal Quintessence!_H_


	7. 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM

It was officially Thursday, the 26th of March. For a certain little girl who had been hiding behind the curtains in Remilia Scarlet's study for more than an hour, this was no ordinary day; it was her 500th birthday. While Flandre Scarlet was quite emotionally moved when she witnessed the death of Ran Yakumo only a few minutes ago, she couldn't help but feel excitement for finally reaching the age of half a millennium.

"Happy birthday to me!" she sang softly to herself. Even though Patchouli had taken away Ran's corpse and Chen's fainted body from the study with the help of Eirin, Flandre wanted to make sure that nobody would find her at all on the chance that anyone would return to the room. Still clutching the weapon Laevatein in one hand, she grabbed the curtains surrounding her (which were as scarlet as everything else in the aptly named mansion) and wrapped them tightly around the middle her body. It wasn't quite an invisibility cloak, but for Flandre's purposes, it would work just as well as one.

While one might initially view Flandre's precautions to hide herself as a bit paranoid, they were actually quite justified by the fact that the door to the study opened after just a few more seconds. The mistress of the mansion, accompanied by her ever-faithful maid, strolled into the room and took a seat in her comfortable chair. She stared at Sakuya with a smug expression in her crimson eyes.

"Well, well, Sakuya," Remilia began with her signature tone of charisma and allure, "it would seem as though midnight has come and gone, and I'm still alive. How wonderful, isn't it?"

Sakuya tried to smile back at her mistress, but she found that her mouth simply refused to comply. "Indeed, my lady. Thank the gods you didn't die." Her gaze shifted uncomfortably to the right. "Still… it's not as if a price wasn't paid for the sparing of your life."

Remilia's satisfied smile faltered slightly, and she stroked her right wing with her left index finger and thumb thoughtfully. "Yes, that's right, Sakuya. Remind me to formally give my condolences to Yukari and Chen when they awaken, all right?" She stretched her arms above her head and yawned casually. "Anyway, now that the assassination attempt has been foiled, what do you suppose we do now? Reisen's still at large, and Koakuma's apparently still out going to meet with her associates."

"Well, I…" Sakuya began. After her first two words, however, her sentence began to taper off. Being the official perfect and elegant maid of the mansion, Sakuya knew that she was expected to always keep a pristine image, especially when in front of her mistress, but as the idea of Ran sacrificing herself in order to keep Remilia safe just minutes ago played out in her head, she couldn't help but lose her train of thought. Realizing that a subconscious expression of disgust was growing on her face from her mistress's relative indifference about Ran's death, she quickly brought her left arm up to conceal it, but Remilia was too busy thinking to herself to notice it in any event.

"Yes? What do you think, Sakuya?" Remilia asked.

"…Never mind, my lady." Sakuya sighed and brought her hands down to rest on the desk. Being a knife-wielding master of battling as a side occupation to being a maid, she knew that she had been trained to use her abilities to defeat enemies in overwhelming displays of power and skill, not to think intently about intellectual and philosophical ideas, for that was Patchouli's expertise.

She began to wonder why the topic about thinking had crossed her mind at all; although Sakuya had always subconsciously wondered about whether or not she had chosen the optimal path of fate in her life as most people do, she had never dwelled on the idea for more than a few seconds at a time. After all, it was her duty to serve Remilia Scarlet eternally, and it would be pointless to think about another way of life at this moment. The destiny that fate had provided for her was a permanent one that she was locked into; it was one which she knew deep down inside she would be serving for the rest of her existence in Gensokyo. It wasn't clear to her whether Remilia's ability of fate manipulation had led her into this lifestyle or if it was simply what she was meant to do, but she knew that attempting to say "Miss Remilia, I quit!" would be an impossible task.

Was she happy living the life she had chosen or had been chosen for her? Sakuya couldn't formulate a definite answer to that question. As she gazed at the light-blue-haired girl whose crimson eyes had watched over her for many years, she had trouble imagining a life that was different than the one she was living right now. While there were some things Remilia would say or do that Sakuya hated, it would be a lie to say that she did not love her mistress. In fact, though she would never admit it, she had grown to have affection for all of the Scarlet Devil Mansion inhabitants: the clumsy yet loveable Meiling; the quiet, stolid, and thoughtful Patchouli; the sweet, adorable, and destructive Flandre; and, of course, Remilia. She may yearn for a position in life that is less subservient in nature or one that allows her more freedom, but, Sakuya concluded, her life was not by any means a bad one.

"Sakuya?" Remilia called out, a look of slight worry crossing her eyes as she noticed her maid bearing a dazed expression. "Are you feeling all right?"

Sakuya instantly snapped herself out of the state of contemplation she was in and rubbed her eyes softly. "Of course, my lady; I have to admit, I'm just a bit tired out from these happenings."

Remilia smiled sympathetically and extended her wings behind her. "I'm not surprised. This is the usual time when humans are in bed. If you'd like to, please feel free to call it a night; Patchouli, China, and I can handle the rest of the incident."

"That's very kind of you, my lady," Sakuya replied gratefully while bringing her head downward to form a bow. "I'll certainly be awake early next morning to handle whatever may happen." In addition to getting a chance to rest, this opportunity gave Sakuya more time to contemplate the thoughts that had suddenly ingrained themselves in her mind, and she was quite happy for that.

As the maid began to walk through the doorway of the study into the hallway, she felt her foot lightly brush against a piece of paper that had placed itself on the carpet beneath the doorframe. With natural curiosity, she bent down to pick up the document and brought it to her eyes.

"Hm?" Remilia murmured interestedly, leaning forward from her chair to look at the paper herself. "What's that you have there, Sakuya?"

"This is…" Sakuya answered slowly while scanning the contents of the document thoroughly with her eyes, her back still turned to Remilia, "…a deed?"

The four-letter word by itself was enough to turn the vampire's naturally pale skin tone ashen, and she leapt out from behind her desk toward the paper like a leopard pouncing on its fated victim. "Give it here!" she commanded to Sakuya as she snatched the document out of her hand and allowed her crimson eyes to carefully and thoroughly peruse it themselves. Similarly to the reading of the death threat letter six hours earlier, Remilia's face contorted slightly into several different expressions throughout the course of the examination, and Sakuya simply stood by and observed her mistress's activity, unsure of what to do herself. Flandre decided to venture her head out from behind the curtain to get a better look at the item, though she kept it a within a safe distance of the fabric in case one of the others happened to glance behind her.

At last, Remilia carefully lowered the paper and turned to Sakuya with a bewildered look in her eyes. "Did you actually find this lying on the floor outside my room?" she asked slowly, to which Sakuya nodded profusely. Remilia scowled and paced back and forth along one wall of the study. "That's impossible!" she concluded. "This is the deed to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I always keep it locked away in the archive room of Voile Library, where only I can access. It couldn't have been just sitting on the floor like that!" Remilia rushed back to the spot where the paper had been lying on the floor and studied it closely. "And yet… it was."

"Might it be a forgery?" Sakuya suggested, browsing the document carefully for any imperfect details that could expose a counterfeit nature.

"Looks real to me," Remilia replied. She pointed to the very bottom where a signature was inscribed in an elegant handwriting. "I remember when I first inherited the Scarlet Devil Mansion from my late father; his name was signed on the deed. I know I tell everyone that I'm the daughter of Vlad Dracula, but it's a lie. My real father's name was Antoine Scarlet, the same name signed here. Since only Flandre, you, and I know that, I highly doubt a forgery would be able to get that detail right."

"You did open the archive room briefly last week to let me and Koakuma in for spring cleaning, my lady," Sakuya offered. "Could she have swiped the deed while we were in there?"

Remilia shook her head. "That can't be the case; I was watching both of you very closely during the entire time to make sure that something like this _wouldn't_ happen." Her sanguine irises began to gleam in the dim light of the study as every possible explanation briefly flashed through her mind, and she bit her lip gently in intense concentration. "It's a relief that whoever stole the deed left it here, but it's obvious that they either made copies of it or learned of all the information it describes. I don't like this, Sakuya."

As Remilia resumed her pacing, Sakuya made a quick decision in her head to venture a particular question that had been on her mind during the entire time. "Err, my lady," she cautiously began, "if I may ask, why does the deed to the mansion require such secrecy? I'm sure you wouldn't need it to show proof of ownership in a place like Gensokyo."

The brow on Remilia's forehead furrowed as she carefully scanned the room for anyone who could be listening (Flandre carefully concealed herself as much as possible in the curtain) before grabbing Sakuya by the shoulder and pulling her in closely. "This is something that I have kept to myself and only myself for as long as I can remember. I probably don't have to tell you this, but there are certain things that can never leave this room. You are my maid and closest friend, but the protection of secrets sometimes knows no bounds." She tugged contemplatively on the ribbon atop her hat as a certain silence suddenly came upon the room. Sakuya knew exactly what Remilia was implying in her threat, and she had no doubt that her mistress would make such a thing happen if she had the will to do so.

Remilia pointed to the line on the ancient deed that preceded one spelling out "is/are the owner(s)…". "Do you see it now, Sakuya?"

"Your name is written there… and Flandre's?"

At the mere mention of her name, the young vampire cautiously removed her head from the concealing curtain. Anyone eavesdropping on a conversation would naturally feel quite curious to hear that a very well-guarded secret was being told, but such a secret that directly involved them would become realistically irresistible. It was a similar feeling of curiosity that had compelled Flandre to choose Remilia's study as her first destination with her new-found freedom, and her hunch that following her sister would lead to something interesting had certainly not been a mistake. Although she still wished to maintain her undiscovered state she couldn't resist flapping her prism-adorned wings eagerly a few times.

"Yes, Sakuya, Flandre's name is written there," Remilia agreed, a knowing pain tainting her voice. "Technically speaking, according to the will that my father left long ago, Flandre has the same power and control of the Scarlet Devil Mansion that I do. By the book, she should be sitting right next to me as I sip tea in the late evenings, eat dinner in the dining room, and survey the land we live in when the sun has disappeared from the sky. However, by my orders, she is detained in the basement."

"My lady… do you mean to say that you've been purposely denying Flandre the power of owning and ruling this mansion and its people?" Sakuya decided that the best course of action upon learning Remilia's secret as she had done would be to avoid showing significant feelings of any sort, and the indecision she was feeling within her mind about how to react to the revelation helped make the decision a natural one.

Remilia shifted her glance sideways to avoid having to look at her maid as she responded. "Yes, I suppose that is what it boils down into. You cannot forget that Flandre is an irresponsible child who would run rampant with her powers given such a position, however; I sealed her away in the basement for her own good."

All that Sakuya could respond with was "…I see." It was approximately at that moment when she finally began to see Remilia as a different person: not as a responsible, suave, elegant mistress and sister to Flandre, but as one who would selfishly squander what she had inherited from her father and deny her sibling of it under the guise of doing it for her own good. Watching the guilty image of Remilia, the innocent face of Flandre in her mind, and the deed that sealed such problems between the former two, she thought it strange that she had not come to such a conclusion in the past. Ordinarily Sakuya would not dream of harboring or even generating such feelings about her mistress at all, but the intense thinking she had performed following Ran's death was just the catalyst needed to spark the corresponding reaction.

Flandre was also having a rather difficult time pinpointing her true feelings regarding the revelation, her mind spinning like a slot machine and stopping on a variety of different reactions: rage, denial, sadness, misinterpretation, apathy, and confusion. The voice in her mind narrating each of her thoughts began to become muddled, voicing Remilia as a cruel, uncaring vampire and a thoughtful sister simultaneously. It was all she could do to keep from shredding the curtain into confetti with her Laevatein and attempt to explode her sister right at that very spot. However, this was not the Flandre of years past who would let her emotions control her and destroy potentially anything at a provocation, and she stayed hidden behind the curtain in silence.

After giving both Sakuya and Flandre time to consider their reactions, albeit the latter unknowingly, Remilia cleared her throat and began to walk toward the open door. "Well, Sakuya, this has been quite an interesting turn of events, no? I have to go to the library immediately to see what has happened to the deed in the archives room, for the perpetrator of this crime must be punished as soon as possible in case word gets out."  
>"I'll join you," Sakuya answered quickly. In this case, it was an eagerness to avoid letting the vampire out of her sights instead of an eagerness to please her that made Sakuya disregard her plans to sleep and remain by Remilia's side.<p>

As the two shuffled out of the study at last, the window curtain finally was stripped from its bonds at the top of the window by a single slash of the infamous metal weapon, and Flandre emerged into full view from behind it. Her body and facial expressions conveyed no seething rage, only a quiet and passive anger that could manifest itself in any of a rather disturbing selection of ways. Crystal prisms on her wings swaying in motion and Laevatein firmly gripped in her open hand, she also started for the door. "Yeah, Remi, it has been quite an interesting turn of events."

* * *

><p>It was in an empty room which radiated an unnatural, sterile white color that all three members of the Yakumo family finally were reunited this evening. It was not the type in which the ceiling, walls, and floor would blend into each other with their shared color, for each face of the room had a slightly different shade of white on them (the ceiling was whiter than the age-scarred floor), but it was still a rather off-putting image for what had likely been a supply room or sleeping quarters in the past. The room was not completely empty; a piece of furniture that resembled a burned coffee table with carbon-colored streaks along the top of its mahogany surface was situated in the center of the room as if it were an example to all unaware beings of the destructive capabilities of Flandre. As Eirin Yagokoro had decided to use the room as a "base of operations" for providing her medical help, she had placed a myriad of different medicines and tools on the table, many of which only she knew the identity and purpose of. Beside the table each of the Yakumos were lying on the floor side by side, none of them unconscious. The youngest one was taking soft, steady breaths in her sleep, the oldest one was breathing irregularly and producing odd gurgling noises from time to time, and the middle one was not breathing at all. Patchouli Knowledge observed each of the three girls in their individual states of rest while remaining completely silent herself before turning to Eirin, ensuring that her usual phlegmatic expression was in place of any one that could convey significant emotion.<p>

"She's going to be all right, isn't she?" Patchouli inquired. The sudden fainting of Chen that occurred moments after Ran's death had greatly bothered the magician, and she feared that she had perhaps accidentally attacked the nekomata with her death spell as well.

"Chen will be just fine," Eirin replied matter-of-factly, not bothering to look up from two vials of liquid that she was mixing together carefully. "Ran dying permanently severed the mental link between her and Chen, so Chen's brain naturally had to shut down for a moment or two to cope with the sudden trauma. Right now, though, she's just sleeping. You know, what people usually do at night instead of trying to take down the schemes of rogue terrorist rabbits?" She chuckled wryly at her remark. "You could wake her up right now if you wanted to, but I'd say you ought to let the poor cat have a little rest after what she just went through."

Patchouli sighed in relief and directed her attention toward the other living youkai in the room. "…And Yukari?"

"Well, that was one hell of an overdose of barbiturates Koakuma gave her. If she were a regular human, Yukari would be lying dead on the ground with one-quarter of the amount she took." Eirin picked up a small, damp, blue washcloth from atop the table and used it to gently wipe the beads of sweat that had formed along the youkai's reddened forehead. "But this is Yukari we're talking about: the near immortal. I'd say she'll be able to get all of the substance out of her body in a few hours." Having finished washing her patient's brow, she took a seat in a brown wooden chair situated at the head of the coffee table and, without anything more to do, laughed ironically. "Man. You think you know your subordinate well, and then in just one day she goes behind your back to force a fox to her death, you know?"

"Only too well, yes." Although Sakuya met her new opinions of Remilia with confusion and indecision and Flandre met hers with a passive rage (something that was often quite more terrifying than an easily-observable fume), Patchouli had no reaction to Koakuma's treachery but a quiet, cold, and callous attitude. As Koakuma had been a devil from Makai in her life before serving the Voile Library, it had taken years to build up a solid trust between her and her mistress. Patchouli often thought it unfair to refuse to trust the seemingly innocent, eager, and hardworking girl devoted to being the best library assistant she could be, for she had never given her mistress any reason to distrust her. As the two bonded throughout the years of living at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Koakuma slowly disproved the idea that a demon familiar is an evil entity that should not be relied on under any circumstances. For her to suddenly throw away this dedication in a single day by supporting a corrupt plot involving the death of the innocent Ran was akin to a slap in the face to Patchouli, and the librarian vowed in that moment that it would be an unforgivable mistake on Koakuma's part if she did not have a miraculous excuse on her hands.

Patchouli knelt down to the ground and patted the sleeping Chen on the head. When she was sure that the pharmacist had her back to her, she let her lips part to form a smile as she held the cat's hand in her own. "I'm so sorry that I had to do that, Chen," she whispered nearly inaudibly to the sleeping nekomata. "But, just as I promised, we _will_ find Reisen and her associates and make them pay, preferably starting with the treacherous assistant of mine who brought us to the point of dilemma in the first place. I won't rest until we do so." Although the whisper was as soft as possible, it carried a certain unshakeable strength of determination that could only come out of witnessing such a situation as she had.

Eirin cleared her throat, and Patchouli immediately dropped Chen's hand from her grasp to look up at a sympathetic and serious expression on the pharmacist's face. "That's quite some admirable dedication you have there, and I'll certainly be willing to help you out on that promise in any way I can, but there's something you should know." She joined Patchouli in kneeling on the off-white floor and motioned toward the sleeping cat. "The youkai known as nekomata can be generally classified as vicious, hostile, and vengeful creatures that aren't above attacking and eating humans on a whim. Obviously, Chen represents a strong exception to the rule… under the care of Ran, that is. Now that she's no longer bound by the ties of a shikigami, it may be impossible to predict her personality. Adorable, aggressive, stolid, depressed; there's really no way to be sure what she'll be like."

"I see your point, but a promise is a promise, no matter the personality of the one it is bound to." Patchouli slowly pushed against the ground to gain leverage in standing up from her kneeling position, and she nodded promptly to Eirin when she managed to get on her feet. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I was working with Youmu on an operation to track Koakuma, and I lost track of her a little while ago. I should really see what happened with her."

Eirin smiled tactfully and motioned toward the door. "Don't let me slow you down. I'll notify you as soon as either Chen or Yukari wakes up." After Patchouli took her leave, the pharmacist returned to the job she had been working on earlier: mixing liquids together to form any of several possibilities of wondrous medicines. At the moment, only Eirin herself knew what sort of medicine the combination would turn out to be, but it would not stay this way forever.

Although Youkai Mountain was quite a beautiful, picturesque scene of nature to behold during any season of the year, it was considered to be in its prime during the middle of autumn. That was the time of the year in which the forest of maple trees situated throughout the mountain were painted in rich shades of vermilion and when the Aki goddess sisters could often be found frolicking among the season they presented, promising a rich and fruitful harvest to all they encountered. It was during such a time of the year when Reimu and Marisa first set foot on the mountain in hopes of confronting the members of the Moriya shrine at the summit about one and a half years ago. While the two eventually managed to reach the lake at the mountaintop and encountered Sanae, Kanako, and Suwako, their trip had been slowed down by a great number of mountain denizens hoping to scare them away from the place for their own safety. Though the present day was in the early spring and the mountain therefore lacked its autumnal colors and goddesses, many of the same residents who would chase away intruders still remained active. This was likely the primary reason for why Cirno and Daiyousei had climbed into the area of high branches in a maple tree near the base of the mountain, though another very possible reason was a lack of intelligent alternative ideas.

"You see, Dai-chan," Cirno explained, "that rabbit girl said she'd be coming here in about two hours. Since we're here first, we'll be able to get the jump on her. Then we'll beat her up real good and make her tell us where Mystia, Rumia, and Wriggle are! We can then stop them from doing anything stupid like killing vampires. It's a bullet-proof plan, don't you think?"

Daiyousei, who had lodged herself between two sturdy branches of the tree and attempted to hide herself behind the tree trunk, smiled at her friend's eager spirit, but still carried a worried gaze in her eyes. "I like it, but what do we do if Reisen's too strong for us? Or maybe she's going to be with several of her friends."  
>Cirno snorted scornfully. "You don't need to worry about that. I fought her during the flower incident, and even though I lost pretty bad, I learned all about her fighting style. Besides, it's the two of us together. You have my back, and I have yours, and even a thousand bad guys can't destroy that!"<p>

"Y-yeah, I guess you're right," Daiyousei replied unsurely. "Meiling probably wouldn't be able to attack anyone better than we would, so coming here ourselves shouldn't be such a problem." The distorted giggle of a youkai echoed from far away into the tree, and the green-haired fairy shivered timidly. She didn't like showing her fright to the too-dumb-to-be-scared Cirno, but being as timorous as she was meant that this was a nearly impossible task to undertake.

Cirno looked at the cowering Daiyousei and cocked her head curiously. "What gives, Dai-chan? I told you that fighting Reisen won't be a problem."

"I know," Daiyousei whispered after another distant youkai laugh resounded, "but still, this isn't the nicest, friendliest place to be around, is it? I heard lots of rumors about the youkai living on this mountain being really strong and scary, especially late at night. Wriggle told me about this one time she took a trip here and encountered these super strong and fast tengu who attack first and ask questions later, these kappa with crazy laser and mechanical weapons, and especially this evil, wicked goddess named Hina who lives around the base of the mountain and would spin continuously, spraying concentrated curses towards everyone near her out of malice alone. It's a miracle she was able to leave the mountain alive, and she was here in broad daylight."

Cirno sighed tiredly and placed a hand on Daiyousei's shoulder. "Look, if you're scared of everything here at Youkai Mountain, we're not gonna be able to rescue our friends from Reisen." She then smirked proudly as an idea began to form in her mind. "Tell you what: I'll show you that there's nothing to be afraid of here. Let's call that curse goddess here and completely dominate her in battle, all right?"

Daiyousei's pupils began to dilate in fright. "No, Cirno, I don't think—"

"**HINA!**" Cirno yelled at the top of her lungs. Although Daiyousei covered her eyes and began to cower, her ice fairy friend hopped out of the maple tree and stood tall on the ground as she waited for her call to be answered.

Sure enough, the dim moonlight from the half-full moon overhead was able to illuminate the shape of an object that was spinning rapidly on the horizon after a few moments. As the shape got closer and closer, Cirno was able to discern more of its features. From what she could see amid the blender-like spinning, the figure was a relatively tall girl wearing a bright, elegant, red dress adorned with plenty of matching ribbons and black cross-laced boots on her feet. Her long, teal hair was tied beneath her chin with a similar ribbon, and a large bow of similar appearance adorned the crown of her head.

"Ah ha!" Cirno shouted triumphantly. "There you are! Prepare to be frozen for eternity, wicked goddess!"

When the girl was within five feet of Cirno, she instantly stopped her pirouette-like twirling and stared straight at the fairy without a hint of dizziness in her eyes. "Ah, you are the one who called for me?" she asked, her voice carrying an honest, polite, and melodious tone to it. As she quickly glanced over Cirno, her lips gently spread into a surprised smile. "You're both fairies, right? It's very rare that two fairies would be calmly standing out in the open at night on Youkai Mountain, purposely trying to draw attention to themselves."

Daiyousei abandoned her attempts to hide in the tree, and she cautiously jumped from the branches to greet Hina as well, albeit in her usual timid manner. "W-why is that?"

Hina spread her arms out on either side and gracefully twirled around once. "This mountain is anything but friendly and hospitable. The technologically advanced kappa and battle-ready tengu aren't fond of outsiders, but both of their species pales in comparison to the frightening gods that live in these forests and one these peaks. You should count yourselves lucky that you decided to call a goddess who means no harm to you, rather than one who would blow you away in a hurricane or let you fall into a fissure in the earth."

"No harm?" Cirno repeated, arching a brow dubiously. "Dai-chan said you were this evil goddess who puts curses on everyone she meets!"

This statement caused Hina to laugh. It wasn't the type of evil, psychotic laughter that a twisted mistress of curses would be expected to have, but rather a light, friendly giggling ringing into the night air in her dulcet voice. "My, you are quite mixed up, aren't you? True, my abilities give me complete control over several hundred different curses, but I use them to relieve humans of misfortune, not to give them it. I would never purposely harm someone; that's called being cruel."

"So you're actually a nice lady," Daiyousei mumbled. Her cheeks had begun to turn rosy as she felt the shame of misjudging a goddess so harshly upon her.

"I'd like to think that I am," Hina agreed humbly. "So, the two of you are…"

"Cirno, the most powerful fairy in all of Gensokyo!" the ice fairy proudly proclaimed while striking an equally prideful pose. "And this is Daiyousei, my best friend."

"Hina Kagiyama, Misfortune Goddess of Youkai Mountain," the goddess said while politely holding onto her red dress and bending her knees into a curtsy. "Now that we've gotten our introductions out of the way, what brings you here, may I ask?"

"Reisen the rabbit girl," Daiyousei explained with sufficient confidence, no longer fearful of Hina. "She must have brainwashed our friend Mystia with her lunatic eyes, since Mystia forced our other two friends to join her when Reisen showed up. She's apparently part of some conspiracy to kill all the strong humans and youkai of Gensokyo, and now the rest of our group has joined her in it. Since she said she'll be at Youkai Mountain later tonight, we were going to defeat her here."

"Reisen? I think I've overhead some of the kappa mentioning her in the past, and she certainly doesn't sound like a pushover. Plus, there still are all the rest of the dangers that lurk around here. Quite a dilemma…" Hina spun around slowly on one foot while pensively pondering the situation. "It wouldn't be responsible of me to let two fairies take on such a powerful girl alone without doing something first."

"Hey!" Cirno protested. "We're plenty strong already! We don't need your help."

"Ah!" Hina exclaimed. "That's it. Since I know this area quite well, I could keep an eye out for the rabbit girl until she shows up, and then I could assist you in defeating her and rescuing your friends."

"Didn't I just say that we don't need you to—"

"You'd do that for us?" Daiyousei asked, cutting Cirno's line of pride short. "T-thank you so much, Miss Hina!"  
>"It's nothing," Hina replied with a humble smile. "Whenever bad things happen on the mountain, I take it upon myself to help out in resolving them." She stretched her legs out in front of her and lightly massaged her feet from within her boots. "You two stay here. I'll continue my nightly walk around the perimeter of Youkai Mountain, and I'll return here if I do happen to find Reisen."<p>

As the curse goddess began to twirl around rapidly again while moving away from the fairies, Cirno frowned and turned to Daiyousei. "You didn't have to accept her offer to help us, Dai-chan."

"I don't see why I shouldn't have," Daiyousei responded. "If she's offering to help us, why not accept her offer? We can use all the help we can get to confront Reisen. She seemed like a really nice woman, anyway."  
>"Yeah…" Cirno answered, suspicion building in her eyes. "Too nice, maybe. I don't trust her. Let's just make sure to stick together in case anything happens, all right?"<p>

After Daiyousei nodded, the two climbed the same maple tree from before and looked out at the view from atop their perch at the departing spinning girl. While laughter of a youkai again resounded from the mountain, Daiyousei was no longer significantly frightened after her meeting with Hina. This time, however, the laughter was accompanied by the brief disappearance of the half-full moon. While it was too dark for the fairies to see properly, the source of this momentary vanishing of the moon was a billowing of dark clouds that passed by overhead. Using their speed and appearance, a meteorologist could easily determine that these were unusual clouds not caused by water vapor. Cirno and Daiyousei, of course, were not meteorologists, however. They were simply fairies living in a world of unsolved mysteries.

* * *

><p>Although each had their own particular reasons, this particular hour of midnight was one in which none of the Scarlet Devil Mansion residents were particularly happy, serene, or pleased. Remilia was shaken up, not by the fact that her life had been spared minutes before in exchange for that of another, but by the continued thirst for blood she had been attempting to ignore and the revelation of her secret regarding the deed. Flandre and Sakuya had both been affected by strange, new, none-too-favorable thoughts regarding the Scarlet Devil and the actions, and neither could feel happy based on this. Patchouli was still recovering from the shock and surprise of having her familiar betray her in such a destructive way, and Koakuma remained worried about being captured even under the protection of Yuuka. Even the fairy maid whom Flandre had forced to assist her could not feel relief as she rushed down the hallways with the knowledge that an incredibly destructive girl was loose in the same building.<p>

There was one exception to this recurring feeling among the residents, however. As the girl strolled down a corridor on the first floor of the mansion toward her bedroom, she was blissfully humming a song and smiling to herself. "_I'm the most popular character whose name people forget. Don't call me China! My name is Hong Meiling!_" Understandably, the she had no reason to be unhappy at the moment. Being able to stay awake for five hours in a row on duty was a great accomplishment for her, especially on such a day when it was critical to guard the mansion against any intruders. Since she had heard word after relieving her post that Remilia had not been assassinated as the letter at promised, Meiling was sure that she would be praised tomorrow for her excellent work. This, along with the fact that Flandre's birthday would be celebrated the next day, put her into a very cheerful mood as she approached her bedroom.

None of the hallways of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were very well-lit especially in the dead of night, and this one was no exception. Although there were candles lining the tops of the walls, they did little beyond casting wide, flickering shadows on the crimson-carpeted floor. This was not a major problem for most of the residents of the mansion, Meiling included, for being the vampires and youkai they were lent them decent night-vision. The darkness was generally not frightening to those who lived by it, but it did present the problem of amplifying the mystery of every creak, bump, and unidentifiable sound. In the case of this particular moment, Meiling's ears began to catch the sound of a subtle shuffling sound beyond the other side of the western wall.

"Hmm?" Meiling wondered out loud, stopping her walk to examine the wall. The sound she could hear from the other side of it was akin to the quiet scuffling of a mouse traversing the attic during an hour of the night when it believes all others to be asleep. Unfortunately, she noted that the sound was a great deal louder than what a mouse could produce, so the simple explanation would not fit (as it would be a few weeks before the residents of Gensokyo would be introduced to an actual mouse youkai). "Is something there?"

As soon as it was addressed, the entity making the shuffling sound swiftly stopped. When it resumed its scratching noises, it was this time oriented toward the wall itself. _Scritch, scritch, scritch_. Meiling gulped and felt her stomach contort and approach her throat; any mysterious noises within the wall that sounded eager to escape toward her were unnerving, to say the least. She considered dashing the last few meters toward her bedroom to escape whatever was separated from her by only a few centimeters of plaster and plywood, but then she thought better of it, not wishing to be labeled a gullible coward if it was a prank devised by Remilia.

As the image of Remilia and Sakuya laughing cruelly at her after they found out that she had been frightened by a simple sound flashed through her mind, Meiling gritted her teeth, swallowed her stomach back into its regular position, and formed a threatening fist toward the wall. "Identify yourself, unknown sound in the wall!" It dawned on her that this was a rather silly thing to say out loud out of context a moment after it left her lips, but it was far better to say it than to run away in fright.

The reply Meiling received from her source of fright was a very low, almost inaudible chuckle, followed by more intense scraping on the wall. At this point, the gatekeeper's heart sped up by at least double, or so it seemed. The laugh was quite unlike that which Daiyousei had been unnerved by moments earlier; no weak fairy or youkai could have possibly produced such a low-pitched, haunting sound. Meiling had not met many wolves in her life, but she still noticed that the echoing, phantom-esque resonance resembled that of a wolf's moonlit howl. This was the moment when the gatekeeper's bones could officially be classified as "chilled".

"Hey there, Meiling!" It was very fortunate that youkai did not suffer from heart attacks, for if they did, Meiling likely would have suffered from one at the moment when Flandre snuck behind her, wrapped her arms around her middle in an embrace, and shouted her greeting as loud as possible. As it was, Flandre was very lucky that she did not receive a fist in the face as her friend whirled around backwards at lightning speed to see who had touched her and shouted.

"Flandre?!" Meiling wanted to ask why the young vampire was out of the basement, to wish her a happy birthday, to inquire if she had heard the scratching noise as well, to scold her on sneaking up behind her, to wonder what she was doing now, and about a dozen other things as well. First on the list, however, was catching her breath after being supremely startled. "…" As she did so, she could hear the shuffling sound in the walls leaving that particular spot and drifting further and further away.

"Yup, it's me!" she replied with a delighted grin on her face. "Sorry about scaring you like that; guess I forgot you'd be surprised to see me outside the basement like this."

The sudden transition of observing a frightening howling-like sound in the wall to seeing Flandre's innocently smiling face completely confused Meiling's emotions, and she ultimately decided to laugh ironically after deciding on no better alternative. "H-hi, Flan. Happy 500th birthday."

Flandre beamed, and she tightened the already-strong embrace she had on the gatekeeper, keeping her hold on Laevatein equally steady by pressing it up against her back. "You remembered? Thanks, Meiling!" Moments after, however, she released her grip and frowned worriedly. "That's not important now, though."

"What's going on, Flandre?" Even among the infrequent times when Meiling would be able to visit Flandre in the basement, the young vampire would virtually never frown out of concern or worry, instead usually only pouting cutely.

"Remilia apparently left the basement door unlocked after she came down there this evening, so I naturally took the opportunity to come upstairs for once. While I was eavesdropping on her and Sakuya more than half an hour ago (yeah, I know you say I shouldn't do that kind of thing, but I didn't want to get caught and thrown back in the basement and waste my golden opportunity), I heard them talking about me. Remilia said that the deed to the mansion entitles both me and her to equal ownership, and that I should actually be living as the head of the house instead of being locked up in the basement like a crazy, masked guy who throws chandeliers up at people. In other words, she did this on purpose just to keep all the glory for herself and deny me of what I rightfully deserve."

Meiling shook her head patiently and patted Flandre's. "That has to be a mistake, Flan. I know Lady Remilia can be a bit of a… well… ass sometimes, but I don't think she'd do something as cruel as that."

Flandre grunted in frustration and twirled Laevatein like a baton. "It _is_ true," she insisted. "I was in the same room to witness Remilia telling Sakuya that it was a 'really big secret that nobody else should ever know' and crap like that. If she really locked me up for my own good, she wouldn't act so guilty about admitting that she denied me of all my rights to Sakuya."

Meiling scratched the back of her head and frowned ponderingly. "I don't believe it."

Flandre laughed humorlessly, throwing Laevatein into the air and catching it with her other hand. "I thought that she was a bad person earlier tonight for never letting me outside the basement, but I never imagined that she'd be going against our father's wishes to do it."

Meiling remained dubious of the claim. "Even if this were true, what proof do you have that backs up Remilia's statement? We'd need some solid evidence to do anything with this."

"The deed itself!" Flandre exclaimed impatiently. "The fact that it had my name alongside Remilia's under ownership was enough for her to admit the secret to Sakuya, so I think it's fine evidence. She and Sakuya said they were heading down to the archive room in Voile Library to check if the one found outside the study is the real one."

Meiling stroked her chin as she began to sort out a plan out loud. "If we could swipe the deed from their possession… we could check it out to see if it's indeed valid and you have an equal claim of the mansion as she does. Then, if it is, we could show it to Aya and spread the word about Remilia unrightfully taking control of the mansion from you all over Gensokyo. If that doesn't force Remilia to change what she's done to you, I'm sure a little visit from Shikieiki Yamaxanadu would do the trick… assuming that this isn't a whole misunderstanding, of course."

Flandre jumped up and down excitedly and proceeded to point Laevatein toward the end of the hallway. "Let's do that right now! That fairy maid who helped me is probably going to tell Remilia about my escape as we speak, if she hasn't done it already. We should hurry to make sure I don't get caught and locked away again."

Meiling smiled and began to walk in the same direction. "Let's go, then, Flandre."

"Just a minute." The vampire looked behind her shoulder at the gatekeeper and tilted her head curiously. "Why are you doing this for me, exactly? I know that Sakuya and Remilia aren't very nice to you as you work, apparently. If we fail, I'll just be locked away and maybe punished, but you'll probably get killed or raped or something like that! Not really worth the risk, I think."

Meiling sighed heavily and looked Flandre in her crimson eyes. "You're my friend, Flan. Possibly the only true one I have living here. If you've truly been denied such an extraordinary privilege by your sister, I can't stand by with a good conscience and know that I didn't at least attempt to help you overcome this. Besides…" Her gaze drifted into the starry sky that could be seen out of the window opposite them in the hallway. "I've never been incredibly happy working day in and day out. If I took part in such a scheme like this one, it could give me the excuse to leave the guard post for good and pursue something I really like in life."

"You mean leaving the mansion? B-but you can't do that, Meiling. Who would I have if you did that?" The watering eyes of the vampire showed that she did not like this prospect at all.

Meiling chuckled cheerfully and wiped away the dripping fluid from Flandre's eyes. "Don't worry about that, Flan; we can figure something out. But, anyway, that's a discussion for another time. Right now, we should probably get moving so we can take a look at that deed your sister is putting away."

Flandre nodded determinedly. "Let's go! For great justice!" The tall, Chinese gatekeeper picked up the short, blonde vampire and placed her on her shoulders, letting her prism-adorned wings flutter in excitement. Flandre pointed the mythical weapon Laevatein in the right direction, and off they were, ready to face whatever they would face.

* * *

><p>When Youmu had finally reached the entrance to the Forest of Magic where she had the misfortune to be captured by Yuuka, it was silent. There might have been the occasional fluttering of a passing fairy's wings or the sound of a wild animal attempting to capture prey, but there was nothing to produce a great amount of sound (except for Yuyuko's hungry demands over the communication, of course). Likewise, when Yuyuko finally reached the clump of bushes in which Youmu had been hiding only a short while before and caught site of the old, rickety antiques shop situated just within the borders of the thick forest, she could hear little noise to signal anything out of the ordinary.<p>

"Well, here we are!" she announced to herself. It was almost like a contagious disease for some of the more eccentric beings in Gensokyo to talk to themselves while out on an adventure, and Yuyuko was not going to break the mold. "Now, where could that naughty little girl have gone?" As the ghost princess wandered around the bushes a few times, she let out a small cry of surprise as her foot sunk into a bit of slightly depressed ground. Removing her foot from the hole, she bent down to observe it. "Looks a little like…" She grabbed one of the two white, formless ghosts always surrounding her and compared it to the shape of the gap. Although her ghosts were a great deal thinner than the hole, they still maintained a suitable resemblance and allowed her to notice the shape of… "The Myon marshmallow!" The connection made, Yuyuko bent down further onto the ground and began to scan the surrounding area for more clues.

When Youmu said that her mistress picked the worst times to act like an airhead, she made a fairly valid claim, seeing as it was essentially what had led her to being captured by Yuuka. The statement's consequences weren't limited to Youmu herself, however. While Yuyuko could be quite clever when she wished to, the moments when she did not wish to were often the ones in which it would have been best for her to do so. An obvious solution to the problem would be to simply never don the ditzy personality, but Yuyuko was far too laidback and carefree to do that. Being the victim of problems caused by this lifestyle time and again, Youmu was dreading the day when Yuyuko's personality would backfire upon her.

From the melody and tone alone, it would have seemed as though it was an innocent, albeit engaging song. The pitch of every note was impeccable, the highest ones on the treble clef were also adorned with trills, and both elevating and descending strings of notes were accompanied by the appropriate and subtle crescendos and diminuendos. Although there were no words to the song, it was a melody that seemed as though lyrics would only taint it. Yuyuko was likely the furthest of anyone from being a philistine, and so she was not about to close her ears to such a song.

"Oh, is that the song of the night sparrow again?" It had been almost exactly four and half years since the ghost princess had embarked on a journey to investigate Eientei with Youmu, but her memory kept the song that Mystia Lorelei had sung on that day fresh in her mind. Unlike the fairly rough and mistake-ridden song that had been recited back then, however, this particular one was sung eloquently and almost flawlessly, the way one who has practiced for such a length of time would be expected to perform.

Indeed, as Yuyuko was still scanning the ground for more indentations that would bring about a clue, she was not looking in the direction of the dark Forest of Magic and thus could not see the approach of the night sparrow. While Mystia still sang in the same elegant and beautiful style, her grey eyes, which were staring daggers at the hunched over image of the ghost, were evidence of her true attitude. Had Yuyuko been thinking logically, she would have unleashed any of her mighty spell card attacks to easily scare the bird away, but she instead decided to enjoy the song and continue what she was doing.

The usual formula of battle for a weak and dimwitted youkai would be to instantly unleash a weak attack upon ambushing the opponent and then using whatever spell card is in disposal. This is not what Mystia had in mind on this particular night, however, as she soared through the night air with Yuyuko's left ear as her exact target. As she got within five feet of the target, Mystia let her feet touch the ground again and folded up her wings, but still sang her song. Slowly sauntering toward the ghost's ear like a lion approaching a wounded gazelle, she let a smirk spread across her lips as she gradually lowered the volume of her singing to little more than a whisper. At the distance where she stopped, she was able to kneel onto the ground and nearly touch Yuyuko's ear with her mouth. From her, it was only a matter of singing her bewitching song until the inevitable would happen.

By the time Yuyuko realized that she had made a mistake in letting Mystia be, it was far too late for anything to be done. Ghosts are naturally more resistant to the effects of the night sparrow's song, but listening for an extended period of time and at a distance of approximately two inches would override their resistance and let them be fully susceptible to the side effects, including confusion, slight memory loss, possible insanity, and, in this particular ghost's case, sleep. Feeling Mystia's soft breath gently carrying each note of the cursed song into her ears as her consciousness quickly left her, Yuyuko had only time to quietly murmur "Oh dear…" before all turned black.

As the ghost's body began to fall backwards from the unconsciousness of its host, Mystia positioned herself behind it to receive it. She opened her arms widely and wrapped them around Yuyuko's middle, mocking the girl with a giggle as she held the false-loving embrace. "Oh, Yuyuko," she laughed, "you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment!"

Mystia released her sardonic gesture of affection and dropped Yuyuko onto the ground, purposely choosing a particular area that was muddy from a shallow pool of water. The brown sludge splashed onto the ghost's pale blue kimono and created a filthy film on it, but the sparrow could certainly care less about keeping her victim's clothes clean. She instead bore a grin of pure excitement at finally achieving a goal she had been aiming for.

"Oh, it would seem as though I'm rather peckish at the moment," Mystia announced to the ghost with a voice that could not have dripped more sarcasm from it. "Would it be too much of a bother if I could have you for a midnight snack?"

"Of course not, my friend!" Mystia answered her own question using a low-pitched voice to imitate Yuyuko's. "By all means, eat as much of me as your little tummy desires!"

"Well, if you're sure…" Mystia placed one of her long-fingered hands on the upper section of Yuyuko's right arm, and placed her other one on the forearm section of the same arm. Taking a deep breath beforehand to summon all her strength, the sparrow proceeded to twist her two hands in opposite directions with as much force as she possibly could.

For the sake of averting such a gruesome concept, it was fortunate that Mystia was acting out against one who was a spirit instead of a physical entity. As Yuyuko had no actual bones or muscles in her apparition, the removal of her forearm from the arm came with no sounds of bodily cracking, and no blood was released when the forearm finally was set free from its connecting elbow. This was hardly important to Mystia, however, and she picked up the pale, severed arm and held it high above her head triumphantly as if it were a well-earned trophy.

Wasting no further time, the night sparrow held onto the forearm by its hand with her left hand and chomped directly into the area just below the point of separation. "Mmm… this is…" she started with a mouth full of spirit flesh, feeling it all over with her tongue, "horrible! Blech!" Mystia spat the mouthful of Yuyuko's arm onto the ground and stomped on it until it was well-hidden in the dirt. "Who would have thought that such a gluttonous beast would taste so disgusting?" She carelessly threw the remaining portion of the arm onto its sleeping owner, and it rolled off of her body into the thick mud.

As she stared down at the sleeping ghost who was covered in mud and had one portion of one arm dropped beside her, Mystia crossed her arms and smiled in satisfaction. She then brought one arm up to her hat and gently patted it, feeling the shape of a familiar and beloved object hidden beneath the brown fabric. In Mystia's opinion, the safest place in the world to hide something near and dear to her heart would be directly above her head, shielded from harsh elements of the world by the hat.

"You see?" she said. "Peoples' limbs come off that easily! I won't have any trouble doing it again." She opened her eyes as widely as she possibly could; they were like empty black holes that told so little and yet so much at the same time. "And when I _do_ find the one who did this to you, she'll get to experience it all over her entire body!"

The satisfied and determined night sparrow, having completed her business with Yuyuko for now, proceeded to nonchalantly return to the air and soar off into the dark Forest of Magic. While she did this, she sang the same bewitching song that had ensnared Yuyuko for all to hear.

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** Welcome back to the story, all! I certainly didn't intend to take that long to write this, but I guess I'm just a lazy guy who loves plugging away at something little by little. The school year is nearing completion, so I should likely be able to write updates more quickly during the summer.

I have to say, despite the time it's taken me to write it, this has been my favorite chapter so far, if only because so much happens! In fact, I had to delay one scene until the next chapter just because this one would be absurdly longer than the rest if it were still in. Since Act I and the first six chapters it contained were an exposition and the beginning of the rising action, this chapter and the next one are the point at which things really start to heat up. As a side note, this is also when the story disembarks from its relatively positive mood and takes on a darker tone. That means that you should probably reconsider reading this story if you want a happy tale of rainbows and happiness and stuff. If the kind of arm-biting action (pun intended) you see here is what you're after, however… enjoy! The next chapter will mark the introduction of my single favorite character of the entire series. Can you guess who it will be? (It's not the one my username is referring to; I like Utsuho a lot, but she's behind two others in the list of my favorites).

I noticed that this chapter seems to have a recurring theme of making assumptions. Flandre and Sakuya assume that Remilia's intentions for denying her sister equal share of the mansion are purely selfish, Daiyousei assumes that Hina can be trusted, Hina assumes that the fairies are telling the truth, Meiling assumes that Flandre's ideas are correct although she still seeks to acquire proof before making a rash decision, and Mystia assumed that… well… Yuyuko was going to taste better than she does. In moments were this is not enough time to thoroughly investigate a matter, it's sometimes inevitable that assumptions will be made. We will have to see, however, whose assumptions turn out to be fruitful and whose turn out to be horrible mistakes.

If you remember back in Chapter 4's notes, I mentioned that it was Mystia's egotistical attitude that would make the large difference between her and Cirno when deciding which side to be on for the plot. Well… I lied. It wasn't too obvious from back then, but our poor little night sparrow has been rather insane from the very beginning. Cirno passed it off as just "being a jerk", but she probably shouldn't have. A certain ghost would have possibly had an intact arm now if she had done something back then.

On an ending note, see if you can spot the subtle reference to Hisoutensoku. I know that it's a bit of an anachronism since this story takes place between Subterranean Animism and Undefined Fantastic Object, but I still felt like it fit well. Here's a hint: it deals with something that actually didn't make it into the game.

In the upcoming chapters, we shall see how Flandre and Meiling decide to handle the problem with the deed, what brought this bit of insanity to Mystia, the success or failure of Cirno and Daiyousei's search to find Reisen and rescue their friends with Hina, what happens to Youmu while being captured by Yuuka, how Yuyuko reacts to losing part of her arm, and both the answers to many questions and the additions of further questions. Look forward to it!


	8. 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM

From the perch atop the branches of the maple tree that one of the two fairies had affectionately nicknamed "Cirno's Fort of Awesomeness" during her time spent waiting, any observable object or phenomenon was heard first and seen second. It was this way due to the imposing, rising slope of land that formed the basis of the mountain they were situated at the bottom of, and nothing from the other side could be seen on such a dark night. Daiyousei had been intimidated the first time she had heard the sound of a single entity confidently marching toward them, but her spirits had been regained after the person came into view and let her identity be revealed as Momiji Inubashiri the white wolf tengu of Youkai Mountain. Unlike the hostile youkai living on the premises who would often assault others even when unprovoked, Momiji was a decent guard who would only attack individuals causing trouble or trying to invade the mountain, and so she simply gave a brief greeting to the fairies before continuing on her patrol. From that point on, it no longer came as a shock to see various fairies and minor youkai appearing in front of the fort, even if they were the hostile type that required a dose of danmaku to be repelled.

Neither Cirno nor Daiyousei, however, had either heard or seen their target Reisen or their new friend Hina in the past half hour, and both of the fairies were beginning to get fairly bored at their stakeout position. "Well," Cirno yawned, "we've gone through 'I Spy', '9 Questions', and 'Tell Scary Stories to See Who Can Scare Dai-chan More'. What game do you wanna play next?"

"How about you fly above the treetops and see if you can spot either Reisen or Hina from there?" Daiyousei suggested. "It's been so long that they'll have to show up sometime soon."

Cirno shrugged with boredom, but began flapping her wings nonetheless. "Sounds like a pretty dull game to me, but I guess you're right." She let herself rise on the wind she created, and within a few seconds was able to hover a few meters above the top of the maple tree. From this point, almost all of that side of the mountain and its surrounding area could be seen by the fairy, and she spun around in a circle to look at it all. "Wow, the land looks really pretty from up here! We should stay up late and stargaze more often, Dai-chan!"

Daiyousei sighed impatiently and looked up at the floating fairy. "Okay, Cirno, but what about Reisen and Hina? Can you see either of them?"

"Oh… right." Cirno was not a curse goddess, and spinning, especially while midair, made her prone to dizziness, but she shook her head free of the feeling and scanned the landscape for either of the familiar shapes. The dark clouds that had been forming in the past hour had now dissipated, and the mountain was very easy to see now. The fairy wasn't very talented at picking out specific objects from far away, so it was fortunate for her that she caught sight of the green-haired goddess almost right away. At that moment, Hina was about fifty meters away from the maple tree and steadily walking in that direction. Cirno couldn't be sure from the distance, but it appeared as though the goddess's emerald eyes were trained directly at her. "Yeah, it looks as if Hina's walking directly this way."

"Walking? Wriggle told me that she was famous for always spinning whenever she travels from place to place," Daiyousei called in reply to her friend above her. "I know that she got the whole detail about Hina being nice and not evil wrong, but it doesn't seem like she would just decide to stop spinning for the heck of it."

"Well, we can ask her when she gets here, right?" Cirno answered. "Anyway, I don't see the rabbit girl anywhere, so I'm coming back down." She ceased the flapping of her wings and let them stay extended, allowing her to slowly float back down onto the ground. From that moment on, the two fairies stood at the base of the maple tree fort and awaited the curse goddess.

When Hina did come into view a minute or two later, Cirno realized that the goddess's eyes had indeed been trained on her, as they were at the moment. Normally this would not be something out of the ordinary, for one usually looks at whatever they are walking toward, but the way that her face seemed to be hiding a wild, savage hunger of some sort beneath its surface was very disconcerting, to say the least. If Cirno did not know better, she would have believed that Hina was eyeing her in the same manner a leopard would eye a gigantic piece of steak right before dinnertime.

"Good evening again, fairies," Hina purred as she slowly closed the last few meters separating her from them. Neither of the fairies were experts about subtlety, but the fact that the goddess's honest, kind voice from earlier seemed to have been swapped for a more sensual, mysterious one was a clue that things were not as they appeared. Hina smirked ever so slightly as she sized up both of the fairies, and she finally decided to stop walking toward them at a distance of only about a foot. "Are we both feeling quite fine tonight?"

"Err," Daiyousei began, glancing at Cirno with a distressed expression on her face, "j-just as fine as we were before, Miss Hina. Did you find Reisen?"

Hina made a low, sinister chuckle, and she spread her arms out to either side of her in a manner not unlike Rumia. Unlike her happy, innocent laugh from the last time she had encountered Cirno and Daiyousei, this laugh was almost exactly the type of evil, psychotic laughter that a twisted mistress of curses would be expected to have. "Oh, forget about Reisen, won't you? I think we can have a lot of fun without getting her involved!"

"What are you talking about?!" Cirno demanded, her face beginning to redden under frustration and confusion. "We need to find her so we can rescue Wriggle, Rumia, and Mystia from her crazy plot! There's no time to have fun and—"

"Shh," Hina interrupted with a whisper, putting an index finger to Cirno's lips. "I think both of you are a little bit too stressed about this entire situation, wouldn't you agree? I could relieve you of some of your misfortune, and it would make both of you feel simply wonderful!"

"What… the heck?" Cirno said slowly, glancing at Daiyousei and pointing toward Hina while spinning one finger in a circular motion aimed toward her own ear. "Have you gone crazy or something?"

"Crazy? Don't be silly!" Hina giggled, although her wide, empty eyes trained on Daiyousei would disagree. "Before you go fighting powerful rabbits or something stupid like that, you should let your new curse goddess friend help you feel nice. It would be my pleasure to do that for you!"

Daiyousei's heart began to accelerate under panic, and she slowly edged away from the advancing goddess. "T-that's very nice of you, Hina, but I think we're a little busy for that, so if it's all right with you, we'll just—"

"Oh, come now," Hina chuckled with a mocking smile on her face. She held one of Daiyousei's palms in one hand and softly began to stroke it with the index finger of her other hand. "No one in their right mind would refuse to let me take their misfortune from them. It's something any mortal would drop onto their knees and beg and grovel for."

"Stop it!" Cirno snapped, pushing Hina's hand away from her friend. "We don't have time for you to suddenly start acting all creepily seductive on us. If you can't help us Reisen, we'll just go out and find her ourselves!"

Hina feigned a look of disappointment, and she pretended to pout. "Is that how you feel? That's such a shame." She stretched her arms above her and yawned in a delicate, elegant manner.

"Sorry for cutting things so short, but we have to go now to find the rabbit," Daiyousei quickly said, smiling at a chance to escape from this uncomfortable situation. She grabbed Cirno by the wrist and was about to rush toward the mountain when she heard Hina chuckle in her evil way again behind her back.

"I wish you hadn't said that," Hina replied with a low, ominous, and amused tone. When Daiyousei turned around, her eyes were met with a pair of glittering green marbles radiating such a terrifying mood that it actually caused the hairs on the fairy's arms to stand on end. "If you had simply accepted my offer, I wouldn't have to use some force to keep you right here!"

Cirno tugged strongly at the hand that was clamped around her wrist and attempted to pull Daiyousei herself, as her friend had become immobilized under the piercing glare that she had seen. "C'mon, Dai-chan! We need to get away right now!"

"I'm so sorry," Hina cackled with perverted glee, "but I'm afraid that's not going to happen, little fairy!" Although Cirno was pulling Daiyousei as hard as she could, she simply could not distance herself more than ten feet from Hina before the goddess gracefully pulled out a slip of paper from her dress and began to recite its contents. "_Bad Luck Sign 'Biorhythm of the Misfortune God'_!"

As soon as she heard these words and saw the ground around Hina display a swirling, sickly green pattern, Cirno gulped, feeling the contents of her stomach shuffle in a similar way. She knew that spell cards could often become very difficult to dodge if one was not careful, and it was even more nerve-wracking to be faced with an unfamiliar one she had never encountered before. Even so, she hid Daiyousei behind her back to keep her safe and firmly planted her feet into the ground, ready to face it head-on.

The first bullets to materialize in the spell formed a long, narrow string that wrapped around behind Hina and then extended immeasurably far past the fairy's right side, composed entirely of red kunai-shaped projectiles. Cirno held tightly onto Daiyousei's arm and quickly flew to the left to avoid the string, but her efforts were quickly halted when she encountered a second string of bullets forming just a few feet from her. Gritting her teeth, she tried to return to the right side and weave around the rapidly dismantling first string that was sending kunai in a straight line toward her. Although she was successful in braving through the first part of the attack, she was nearly instantly flanked by both the broken fragments of the second string and the formation of a third string. "Argh, what an annoying attack!" Cirno growled in frustration, searching desperately for an opening in the closing blockade of bullets that was surrounding her.

"Oh my, trapped right in the thick of things, are we?" Hina called out to the fairy with an amused tone of voice. "I would have thought that a fairy with such an ego would have more power behind her than this. It's a bit of a shame that you're already going to lose." She quickly twirled once more, creating three more strings of bullets around her to tighten the web that was closing around Cirno.

To the surprise of Daiyousei, who had been listening and observing all that had been going on while shivering behind her friend's back, Cirno returned the taunt with a laugh of her own. "Is that really what you think, Hina? You must be a lot stupider than I imagined, not having a clue about a fairy's ice power! _Freeze Sign 'Perfect Freeze'_." Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, the fairy released a great cyan wave of sub-zero temperature from her body. As it collided with the nearest red bullets, they each became frozen in place and completely ceased their motion, allowing the bullets around them to come in contact with their ice-covered brethren. This began a chain reaction of bullets freezing: each time one of the strings dismantled to aim its contents at Cirno, the pieces of it joined the continuously growing mass of ice. At last, every bullet that had been aimed at the fairy was encased in ice, and in the very center of it all stood a proud, grinning fairy. "Are you regretting insulting me now, idiot?"

Hina surveyed the battlefield of frozen bullets with an unimpressed look in her eyes and shrugged. "Well, that's a bit better than I thought your potential was, but still, I—Ow!" She cried out in pain as a sharp, frosty sensation suddenly assaulted her back, and she turned around to find the source of it: the green-haired fairy who was wearing a brave expression on her face and releasing a multitude of small, pointy bullets from either side which arced toward their central target.

"Take that!" Daiyousei yelled. Her voice, unfamiliar to being used at great volumes, cracked horribly at the shout and produced more of a humorous squeaking noise than an intimidating threat, but she continued anyway. "I-I don't like it when people try to trick me into trusting them, only for them to then betray me! It's not nice at all." As each of Daiyousei's attacks struck the goddess, they began to tear small holes in her red dress, forcing her to spin rapidly to deflect the bullets and avoid the complete destruction of her clothes.

"I don't like it when fairies poke holes in my dress," Hina responded in a faux-pleasant tone of voice while pretending to smile warmly, all the while advancing toward the fairy in an intimidating manner. "It's not nice at all either, and I tend to subsequently poke holes in the skin of whoever does it." Before she could act on her words, however, she once again felt several freezing-cold projectiles slamming against her back. "What the…"

"You fell for that?" Cirno laughed, nearly slapping her knee in humor. "You actually fell for it? Man, you really are such an idiot!" As Hina observed when she faced the laughing fairy, the multitude of red bullets she had released in her spell card had thawed out from their frozen state and proceeded to travel in random directions, some of them directly toward her.

Since Hina was not a tengu, she did not have a leaf fan that could be used to stir up tempest-force winds to blow all of the drifting bullets away. However, the crafty goddess was resourceful enough to brainstorm another solution to her problem within seconds. She began spinning at a lightning-fast speed, going from looking like a blur to Cirno and Daiyousei to actually seeming to stop and go backwards as their minds could not keep up with viewing each frame their eyes saw. As Hina held her arms out on either side of her body, she became something of a living windmill or fan that stirred the air around her enough to create a wind-like force that did indeed redirect the bullets aimed toward her to other directions. At last, when there were no more bullets aimed toward her, she gradually reduced her spinning speed down to a halt, although she held her head in her hands for a few seconds afterward as if she were dizzy from the rotation. "Nicely done, fairy," she called out, grinning ear-to-ear. "I guess it's not too far off the mark when you tell everyone that you're the strongest if you can freeze and redirect attacks like that."

"Well, of course," Cirno responded, puffing her chest out in pride. "I beat that magician Marisa to a pulp with these powers, so it was pretty inevitable that the same would happen to you!"

"Ah, but am I really just a pulp yet?" Hina asked, gaining a malevolent edge to her smile as she lowered her eyebrows. "I think I still have some solid matter left to me before I just become a glass of orange juice as you said." She revealed another spell card from her dress, and smirked triumphantly as she looked over the contents of its words. "Try to freeze this one, dear: _Fate 'Old Lady Ohgane's Fire'_."

At the word "fire", Cirno gasped and felt her stomach contort as memories of attempting to freeze fiery bullets and only getting terrible burns as a result during the Fairy Wars ran through her mind. As she glanced at Daiyousei's worried expression on her face from behind Hina, however, she steeled herself and bravely stood directly in front of the attack. "No problem!"

It was indeed a problem for a fairy based on the element of ice, however, as eight segments of conjoined fireballs formed around Hina in the shape of a loose octagon. Just standing about twenty feet from the large collection of fiery bullets was troubling for Cirno as a breeze carried the radiating heat directly into her face in the same way a blow-dryer would, forcing her to shut her eyes out of disorientation; she, like most of the denizens of Gensokyo, had never used a hairdryer in her life, and so the experience was quite disconcerting for her.

While Cirno began to wildly flail her arms about in front of her in an attempt to get rid of the harsh wind blowing in her face, she failed to notice that the octagon of fireballs was beginning to break down into long lines that spread out in every direction. Even though there were wide spaces between the lines of bullets like on a wire of Christmas lights, Cirno was too distracted and Daiyousei was too intimidated by the number of blazing projectiles heading her way to effectively dodge them, and as a result both of the fairies were pushed onto the ground with singed areas all over their dresses from fiery collisions.

"Urgh," Daiyousei groaned from the scorching pain that seemed to inhabit every part of her body at the same time. Even as she raised herself from her position of lying prone on the earth, all she could see flying toward her was another horde of flaming bullets in a broken pattern. Although the fire was composed of danmaku and thus would not cause the combustion of the trees or grass around it, it was still potent enough to cause a searing effect on its two victims that convinced Daiyousei to return her head to the ground, a feeling of defeat echoing through her mind. As she stole a glance at Cirno from the other side of the attack's center, she felt despair at the sight of the ice fairy being repeatedly assaulted by the blazing shots. The effect was almost comedic; Cirno's head was pelted again and again by the fireballs to the point of her getting a dizzy look in her eyes.

At last, when it seemed as though both of the fairies would either be knocked unconscious or burned alive from the attack, Hina returned the spell to her dress and let each of the blazing projectiles disintegrate simultaneously, transforming the chaotic sight of the Youkai Mountain forest battle to a rather peaceful, quiet one. "Very brave and commendable of you," she called with a sense of smug triumph in her voice as she began to advance toward Cirno, "but it was still rather foolish of you to think that you had a chance of winning, even with those impressive freezing abilities. Now that we've settled that, however, let's return to relieving you of your misfortune!" As she stood over the scarred and lightheaded ice fairy whose vision was filled with burning stars, Hina gently tugged on the ends of the very long crimson ribbon that adorned her hair, unraveling it to the point at which it lay completely straight in her hands.

Before she could perform any sort of activity with the long fabric, however, it was violently punctured a total of three times with accompanied bangs that sliced through the silence. The ribbon was wrenched away from Hina's grasp by the force involved, and from its new position lying on the ground, the goddess noticed three perfect, bullet-sized holes formed along its length. Quick to notice the danger she was now in, Hina turned her gaze turned upwards toward eyelevel again and instantly found herself staring into the barrel of a black pistol about five feet away. Both Cirno and Daiyousei, even in their defeated state, instantly recognized the lavender-haired, rabbit-eared, scowling owner of the pistol as the one they had been searching for in their entire time at Youkai Mountain. "Like bullets in your ribbon?" Reisen asked while staring coldly down at Hina. "No? Well, that's okay; I'll just put the next ones in your head, you impostor!"

"Impostor?" Hina repeated, chuckling softly to herself as she grinned at Reisen. "No, you've got that wrong. I'm just—"

"Shut up." Reisen concealed her pistol and pointed her index finger directly at Hina's forehead, causing about ten ammunition-shaped danmaku bullets to be launched at rapid fire.

Although Cirno was quite shocked by the rapid course of events that had just taken place a few feet from her, Daiyousei was able to take the opportunity to crawl next to her friend. "Come on," she hissed from the position she had reached, seeing the goddess collapse onto the ground with multiple bullets lodged in her forehead. "Let's get out of here!"

"But Reisen's right there!" Cirno protested as she pulled herself off the ground. "We can't just leave without getting back Rumia, Wriggle, and Mystia!"

Daiyousei sighed and tugged on her friend's wrist. "We can deal with that later, but right now, I really don't wanna be the victim to whatever Psycho Misfortune Girl here has in store for us. Besides, do you really want to attack the rabbit who just saved us from someone weaker than her and expect to win? Let's just head back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and get help there before we get incinerated or something."

Cirno grumbled loudly, but nodded. "You're gonna pay for brainwashing and kidnapping our best friends, got it?!" she shouted with a glare to Reisen. "I'm not gonna stop until you're punished like a bad bunny should be!" After voicing her threat, she gingerly tried her battered and charred wings to find that they were fortunately still operational, and subsequently took off back toward the Misty Lake and its mansion with her friend flying close by her heels.

Reisen heard Cirno's words echo through her mind, and she felt a tinge of sadness from its strong emotion. Memories of all she had done in the past twelve hours and ideas of the reception she would get from it began to flood her mind, and a feeling of being trapped in an inescapable dilemma overshadowed all. She wondered if there would indeed be a way to get out of the position she had now put herself in, but no simple solution came to mind. "This is such a mess I've gotten myself into," she murmured to herself in a melancholy manner.

As she noticed that Hina was beginning to stir from the ground, however, she firmly planted her foot on the fallen goddess's back and restricted all of her movement. "You don't seriously take me for a fool, do you? Get rid of that silly costume and show me who you really are." The girl received no response from the goddess on the ground, so she pointed her index finger at her head again. "Okay, I guess you want me to drill some more bullets into your brain then?"

"All right, ALL RIGHT!" the being on the ground yelled angrily in a voice that was much rougher and less feminine than that of the goddess it had been emulating. The image of Hina that it had assumed began to quickly dissolve into what seemed to be a thick black cloud to Reisen in a manner similar to pixelation, and what emerged from the cloud was a girl the rabbit had never seen before. Contrary to the tall goddess she had been imitating, the girl was rather small with similarly short hair that barely managed to reach her shoulders. On her body she wore a black dress that only reached her thighs, and much of the rest of her legs were covered by stockings in the same color. A snake adorned both her right arm and the long trident she carried, and sprouted out of her back were six wings, one half of which seemed similar to sharp red scythes and the other half resembling blue demon tails. With her sharp, red eyes, she glared daggers at Reisen. "There you go: my true form. Are you happy now, you little rabbit bitch?!"

Reisen was genuinely surprised at the sight of the new girl; she had been half expecting the identity of Hina to be a mischievous Yukari trying to play a prank on the fairies. "Who… who are you? What were you doing with Cirno and Daiyousei?"

The girl laughed sharply and planted her trident into the ground to use as a crutch to get back onto her feet again. "Oh, interested about me now, are we? Funny; half a moment ago I could have sworn you were talking about giving me a lobotomy. Well, anyway, just since you were _so_ keen on invading my personal business like that, I'll tell you: I'm Nue, and I was doing my job of terrifying people."

"A nue…?" Reisen inquired curiously, attempting to run through her memory to access any information she had previously encountered about the species. "I thought those were all sealed underground centuries ago."

"Yeah, well, apparently not anymore, since I'm back, smart one," Nue replied harshly with a brandishing of her trident. "Anyway, it sounded as though those fairies had a serious bone to pick with you, so you should be happy I was trying to scare them into submission by playing on their natural fear of that curse goddess!"

"The fairies were doing nothing wrong, though!" Reisen argued. "Why would you want to scare them so badly?"

The nue shrugged. "Why do you hop around and eat carrots? Why does Murasa drown people when given the chance? It's the same reason why I aim to bring about unknown terror; it's what I'm meant to do, even if that means having to knock out a ridiculous-looking goddess, rob her of her spell cards, and then wear her outlandish dress to get the job done. And anyway, I wasn't planning on raping them or anything like that, if that's what you were thinking; I was just going to show them enough creepy illusions to scare them straight and quench my thirst to cause terror for the past eight-hundred years."

Reisen frowned and rubbed her tired eyes. "So you came back to the surface just to strike fear in people? Seems like every youkai in Gensokyo is just trying to do that nowadays, and nobody is succeeding."

Nue chuckled and smirked at the rabbit. "There's a bit of a difference between me and the average youkai. Namely, I don't mind skinning a few knees to get to where I need to be in life. I was following the development of this terrorist group trying to raze the current Gensokyo and its corrupt ways that a little fairy told me about, and I figured I could use the opportunity to my advantage to get a head-start in the art of fear."

"That's the group I'm a part of!" Reisen exclaimed. "You're going to join it?"

"Yeah, I sure am!" Nue said with a mischievous smile. As Reisen was preoccupied with staring at the youkai's face and her peculiar wings, she failed to notice that Nue was beginning to draw her trident back slightly as if preparing to use it. "The only problem is… you're not going to be able to tell anyone else in your posse about it!" Without delay, she whipped her arm forward and jammed the ends of the three points of her weapon deep into the rabbit's right upper leg area.  
>Reisen let loose a tremendous scream as her face contorted in extreme pain. Although the rabbit had sustained injuries in the past due to a variety of circumstances, she had never felt such a focused and concentrated sensation of pain in her life as she did now in her right leg. It was comparable to the feeling that the vegetables she chopped on a daily basis to prepare dinner at Eientei would experience if they had nerve endings after being sliced and fried in oil, she decided. Reisen brought both of her hands to the spot of the injury to try to stop the blood that was gushing out of the wound like a crimson water spring, but Nue continued to drive the weapon further and further into her leg, even twisting it slightly with a look of sadistic pleasure on her face.<p>

When about half a pint of blood had trickled down Reisen's leg and formed a warm red pool on the dirty earth below her, Nue pulled the trident out of its fleshy burial spot and tossed a small black handkerchief at the rabbit, indicating for her to wrap it around the wound to stop the blood flow. Reisen, however, only stared at it with a horrified expression and chattering teeth as it fell to the ground beside her. At that moment, she lost all the confidence she had possessed while exposing the impostor and dropped to the earth on her knees in a submissive manner before the mysterious, cruel girl. "Like I mentioned before," Nue said nonchalantly, "I'm not afraid to skin some knees… or puncture them."

Leaning in closer, Nue gently gripped her victim's chin and raised it up to allow her to fully see her face. "By the way, I just went easy on you. Did you perhaps notice a gathering of black clouds around earlier today? That was me, following you and everything you did, keen on learning about this curious operation you're a part of." She stared into the eyes that were too full of tears to produce insanity-causing waves, and smiled sweetly. "You're such an adorable little rabbit, getting miserably pushed around and forced to help the one heading this, even though you desperately tried to talk her out of it. You got caught in a big spot of trouble, becoming the scapegoat of a plan you never wanted to be a part of and in fact were planning to resist, right? The fact that you're not suffering from depression if that's what your daily life is like is amazing. I wanted to climb out of my clouds and just give you a great big hug!" Since she did not have the opportunity before, Nue decided to validate her claim and wrapped her arms around Reisen's body, briefly holding her in a tight embrace. In reply, Reisen only whimpered softly to herself and shut her eyes. "Anyway, get this: I have my own agenda in mind, not the quasi revolutionary bull that cult of yours is into. I usually kill anyone who sees my true form, but it wouldn't sit right with me to murder such a pathetic little creature like you right now. Take this as a warning, though: if you get in the way of what I'm trying to do again, I'm not going to hesitate to send you to the hell I just emerged from, plain and simple. Of course, if you're just going to be like a wounded animal and slowly crawl around until you succumb to your injury, that's fine with me as well."

She examined the three reddened, wet tips of her trident curiously and gingerly rolled her tongue over them, lapping up a small portion of the liquid and smiling in a satisfied manner at the taste. Even though a nue is not a vampire and does not typically feed on blood, Nue felt that doing so would be an appropriate gesture toward the one who had inconvenienced her in the middle of her act of terror and shot danmaku projectiles into her head. Glancing at Reisen's wincing of utter dismay, she stuck her bloodstained tongue out at her. "Yeah, good luck finding someone in Gensokyo who will rescue you from the mountain in your condition or believe your crazy ramblings about how 'there's an evil nue on the loose', especially when your name now seems to be mud around here!"

Before Reisen could comment on the violent and disturbing act and speech of the nue, complain about the excruciating pain she was experiencing at the moment, or essentially say anything, Nue shrouded herself in another dark cloud and promptly fled the scene, only saying goodbye with a quick, whimsical "Later!" The rabbit was left alone in the middle of the dark, mountainous forest. While most others in her situation would likely attempt to pursue the fleeing nue or seek help, the conflicting and depressing thoughts and feelings in her mind compelled her to remain in place and accept the dolorous sensation brought on by both her predicament and the wound. Her only company was the terrible pain inflicted by the trident, but that itself was slightly dulled by an overwhelming feel of loneliness, as if the entire world as she knew it had decided to exit and leave her stranded in a sea of despair without companionship. Nue's recitation of what Reisen had done throughout the past day resonated in her thoughts, and she couldn't help but feel angry and frustrated with herself. "This… I shouldn't be doing any of this. I should have stayed firm and refused to be a part of this from the beginning." But she didn't, Reisen knew all too well, and that could not be changed now. Tonight was a night that would permanently change the existence of not only her, but many others in Gensokyo, she realized. It was these thoughts that allowed her to drown out the overbearing pain and sadness she would otherwise feel.

* * *

><p>Even though Youmu knew full well that the night had progressed about six and a half hours since she had last stepped foot in Kourindou, she was still surprised and bewildered by how dark the interior of the old antique shop was at this hour. Although a lantern placed on the counter of the store produced a flickering light, it barely did anything besides projecting deep shadows on the walls. The gardener was in fact slightly glad that Yuuka had ordered her to sit down on a small wooden rocking chair in the center of the room, for she felt that she would certainly bump into or stub her toe on any of the piles of junk that were spread all around the store. Amazingly enough, the flower youkai had been true to her word of preparing tea, and Youmu currently sat in her chair while holding onto a piping hot cup of finely brewed green tea that did not appear to contain any poisons, sedatives, or unpleasant-tasting ingredients. Even while remaining a cruel youkai, Yuuka took care to make sure that everything she did relating to flora was prepared with the utmost quality, and that included tea. Youmu had dreaded the beverage when she was first escorted to the shop and "politely requested" to drink it, but the apparent innocence of it was a pleasant surprise.<p>

Although Yuuka herself was not present in the store to watch over Youmu and the gardener was not physically restrained in any way, she knew better than to attempt to escape, spying a single sunflower in a pot that rested beside the flickering lantern on the counter. Although she could not be sure, it appeared to Youmu as if the flower was staring directly in her direction, and she swore that she could see a single grinning mouth on its face through the dim light of the room. It was an unwritten message that the flower youkai was still watching her which Youmu dared not to ignore. Besides the unsettling flower, there was also Koakuma to contend with, standing in front of the shop's door and eagerly awaiting the return of Yuuka, and Youmu knew that she would not be able to defeat the devil in complete silence to avoid causing attention.

"Oh, there she is!" Koakuma exclaimed enthusiastically after a few minutes of standing at the door. "Yuuka-sama's coming back, and it looks like she's bringing another unconscious body along with her."

"Wonderful for her," Youmu remarked dryly as she sipped her tea and shifted her weight from the right side to the life side of the chair. "You little treacherous wench," she added under her breath.

Koakuma turned around to face Youmu and cocked her head curiously. "You think I'm a traitor?" she asked with a small, innocent smile. "Why would you think that? I'm just expanding my activities and helping carry out the greatest upheaval of Gensokyo's unbalanced lifestyle the land's ever seen. Just because Patchouli's not behind it doesn't mean I can't do some good in the world, does it?"

"By going directly against your mistress's back, throwing her plan into turmoil? Sounds pretty traitorous to me," Youmu replied, disgust for the demon present in her voice.

"Hold on a sec." Koakuma sighed and rustled her wings with slight irritation, and she took out the indigo book she had used earlier in the night from one of her pockets and showed it to Youmu. "See this? It's a book that gives a brief history and lifestyle information about demons and devils. All of us Makai residents got one when we were first conceived into the world, and I decided to hold onto mine even after Patchouli summoned me as her familiar. I never have let _anyone_ touch it, not even my mistress herself." She ran her fingers down the fore-edge, which, though yellowed from age, appeared to remain as pristine and free from imperfections as a brand new one, and then opened it up and began to carefully leaf through a few pages. "Anyway, the book describes the typical lives of devils like me: representing evil itself, torturing foolish and unwitting humans and turning them against their closest ones, seducing others as succubi and then possessing their souls, et cetera, et cetera." She closed the book with a rather loud thump, causing the light in the lantern to dance wildly for a second or two. "And then there's me: a devil familiar whose most exciting aspect of life is sorting books for her mistress day in and day out. Patchouli is a very kind mistress and all… but I just am tired of not being able to live in the exciting way my species is supposed to. Doesn't that make sense?"

Youmu frowned and averted her gaze away from the devil. "Perhaps for a little girl with an even smaller heart and no sense of fidelity, one who doesn't realize what it actually means to serve a mistress, it makes sense, but I can't see it fitting anywhere else."

"My, that's a rather bold claim to make," another voice, as lovely and charismatic as a politician's in public, echoed into the store. "If you insist that Koakuma doesn't know what loyalty to one's superior means, would you perhaps like to demonstrate it with your own mistress?" The beaming face of Yuuka appeared directly in the space outside the shop's front door, and she emerged into the dark room with the cheerful yet subdued Yuyuko in her arms, mud dripping off her kimono onto the ground.

"Oh, hello, Youmu," Yuyuko greeted as she turned her head toward the girl sitting in the chair. "I hope you weren't being rude to this nice lady after she invited you to a tea party, especially since she brought me right to you when I thought I'd have great trouble finding you." She looked up at Yuuka and returned her smile with an equally joyful one. "Thank you again for doing that, by the way."

"But of course; it was nothing," Yuuka replied pleasantly, causing the two women to giggle softly between themselves. Koakuma snickered as she observed the scene, and Youmu sighed exasperatedly at her mistress's inability to take a dangerous situation seriously. "Now, why don't you take a seat in… I don't know… Youmu's lap? It's easier to keep an eye on the two of you that way." The flower youkai strode confidently toward the center of the room and dumped Yuyuko on top of her gardener's body.

Even though the ghost weighed little due to her species, Youmu still groaned as her body accepted the weight. From this new angle, she noticed that no hand emerged from the ghost's right sleeve. "Lady Yuyuko… what happened to your arm?"

Yuyuko smiled mischievously at Youmu and began to roll her sleeve up to her shoulder, revealing that the appendage simply ended in a rough, jagged cut at the elbow. "Oh, right. I do believe that young night sparrow was hungry tonight and decided to try spirit flesh for once. That's not really the most appropriate thing to say first, however; shouldn't you be apologizing for running away from Hakugyokurou against my wishes and then shouting so utterly crassly at me earlier tonight?"

"Oh, so that's the 'ideal' way you show fidelity to your mistress, Youmu?" Koakuma remarked sarcastically with an expression of triumph one only gets while watching another person make a hypocritical statement. "I could have sworn you were just getting on my case about lesser offenses toward Patchouli."

Before Youmu could reply with another irritated jab at either her mistress or the devil, Yuuka cleared her throat loudly, allowing all three of the others in the room to direct their attention toward her. "Forgive me for intruding on your personal relationship, but it almost seems as though you two ghosts have a bit of a conflict going on amongst yourselves. Please, do feel free to talk to each for a little while and get it worked out. I have to take care of an errand involving the next stage of the plot I'm sure you two are well aware of, but I'll be back before long to find out just why the two of you have been following us this evening."

"The plot?" Youmu echoed in confusion. "You mean, you had a hand in trying to kill Remilia?"

"Not a hand, little one," Yuuka replied with a chuckle. "No, no, no. As you won't be leaving here any time soon, you may as well know who the savior of Gensokyo from its corrupt ways will be: me. The vampire's death was but the beginning piece of a plan to set Gensokyo free from its corrupt ways, as I'm sure Reisen must have mentioned to you in the letter I asked her to write. Incapacitating Yukari, forcing Ran into compliance, writing the letter on Yuyuko's personal stationery… all these were little acts I devised and ordered, as will the next step be." Catching a look of confusion and one that appeared to be a combination of awe and delight from Youmu and Yuyuko, respectively, Yuuka smiled patiently. "In case you're wondering why I'm telling you this, I don't mind if everyone trying to oppose me on this learns that I'm the instigator; it's not as if they'll willingly run up to me and attempt to beat me into submission, unless they're like Tenshi. Nobody in their right mind wishes to face me if it's at all possible to avoid doing so, and so I can make the reform of Gensokyo as peaceful as possible." She yawned softly and opened her umbrella toward the ceiling. "But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. I'll return shortly. Koakuma, do make sure that the guests don't gain the desire to leave our new humble abode, please."

"Of course, Yuuka-sama!" Koakuma chirped, and she proceeded to pull up a similar chair herself in front of the two ghosts to watch over them.

As Yuuka strolled over to the back of the store where several closet doors lay partially closed, all the while maintaining her eerily grinning stare at the ghosts, Yuyuko looked down at the girl she was sitting on and had dripped mud on and smiled eagerly at her, slightly jumping up and down in her lap like a young child. "Isn't this such a thrilling twist, Youmu?" she said excitedly. "I mean, finding out that Reisen was only answering to a higher power and then discovering the ringleader of this psychotic circus, the big bad mistress herself, and _we're_ the ones she decides to capture herself! I almost feel honored have such a front-row seat on which to watch her big plan right now."

It was at that moment when Youmu finally gave up trying to maintain a serious image in such a grim situation as being held hostage by a possibly sadistic youkai while in the company of her mistress, and she managed to spurt out a weak chuckle to quell Yuyuko's bouncing excitement. "Y-yes, I guess it is pretty interesting, even though I suspected Yuuka was behind a lot of this the moment when she first captured me."

"I'm glad you agree with me," Yuyuko said, her voice gaining a sly edge to it, "but don't think for a moment that kissing up to me is going to make me punish you any less for being such a disobedient girl earlier tonight." She twisted her body around in order to get a glimpse at the one she was sitting on, sliding off the lap into the remaining space on the chair, and playfully tapped Youmu's nose with her index finger several times, making sure to use the arm that was still intact to do so.

Youmu shuddered from the thought of this, especially knowing that her punisher was only a few millimeters from her at the moment, but this was quickly broken by a painful, constricting sensation that began to course around her torso, almost as if a snake had wrapped itself around her. Looking down, she noticed that the sunflower pot on the table beside her had sprouted a thin, reddish-silver, winding vine that had sprouted countless red seeds on it. Almost as if possessed by a poltergeist, the vine was quickly binding Youmu and Yuyuko to the chair by their stomachs, and its continuous and unceasing motion that produced a tighter and tighter grip seemed intent on cutting off circulation.

"It's bittersweet," Yuuka explained matter-of-factly as she shut one of the closets in the back and strode back toward the entrance. "Quite a tenacious and adorable little plant that loves to strangle trees to death, and this particular strain I bred seems to work to a similar effect on humans and youkai. Of course, I don't expect it will exactly _kill_ you, per say, but I think it will provide a bit of a hindrance for trying to leave. Enjoy the time to yourselves until I return!" Leaving Youmu to shift her body weight uncomfortably under the tug of the vine, Yuuka sauntered toward the front door of Kourindou, swiftly opening and closing it in one swift motion as she exited.

It had been far too dark in the insufficiently lit store for either of the ghosts to even get a glimpse of the flower youkai in that moment. Even if the single lantern had been extremely strong, however, Yuuka would have still been shrouded in darkness as she proceeded toward the exit. The power of Rumia to produce a bubble of darkness around herself, after all, always worked, even when she herself was bound and gagged by bittersweet vines that also wrapped up her friend Wriggle like a Christmas present against her back, completely terrified, and held by the top of her hair in the firm grasp of Yuuka. The only comfort the two close companions could feel in that moment was the warmth of the other's body where their backs touched, but it did little to quell their nerves as they were carried off by the flower youkai into the night toward parts unknown.

* * *

><p>"N-no, don't bother trying, Sakuya." It did some good for the otherwise silent and deserted library to be filled with the sound of a voice again, even if it was a quiet one ridden with anxiety as the vampire mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion currently possessed. Sakuya considered it a relief to see that her mistress's complexion had once again turned a pale white color from the pink, human-like tone it had been earlier before Yukari had reversed her accidental handiwork, but the fact that it was as pallid as skim milk and complete with nervous, constantly twitching and shifting red eyes was rather unsettling to her. As she attempted to grip the doorknob of the small door located covertly in the very rear of the library behind a bookshelf that seemed to carry more dust than books on it, Remilia grasped her wrist with an unsteady, trembling hand. "I have the archive room door locked to everyone but me with magic like the kind sealing Flandre away."<p>

Even so, Sakuya felt that a minor act of disobedience to release the defiant attitude she had been gaining toward her mistress in the past hour would not be horribly stepping out of line, and so she began to twist the knob in her hand, partly expecting it to remain firm and resist her motion. Instead, the knob's rotation was unrestricted, fully turning around once, and the added force of Remilia clutching Sakuya's arm like the safety rail of a lifeboat in the center of a typhoon caused the door to push open and welcome the two into the room behind it.

Seeing the door to the archive room swing open without needing to be unlocked first caused a tremor within Remilia's stomach, and she gulped similarly to how one whose secrets have been just exposed to the entire prying world would as she peered into the pitch-black, cramped, dusty room of shelves attached to the walls and piles upon piles of papers. Without wasting a moment to comment to Sakuya about how the door was unlocked, she launched herself into the little room. Although her skin tone seemed more ashen than ever given the latest discovery about her predicament, she used her keen vampire night vision instead of light reflecting off it to guide her to the correct document. "If the paper we found outside my study door was indeed a fake, the real deed must still be in here."

Sakuya quietly stepped into the dark room behind her mistress and began to quickly scan through the labels atop the shelves. If there were any hidden interesting facts or incriminating information about Remilia to be found, she concluded, they would be in the archive room, and it would be much easier to find such things when the vampire was anxious and distracted rather than alertly staring at her like during the spring cleaning period. It somewhat amazed and horrified her to realize what her first thoughts about being in such a room of secrets was, but she rationalized it in her mind by reminding herself of the way Remilia had responded to Ran's death and her reason given for being concerned about the deed's appearance. She began to quietly whisper the names of each label she found as she passed them. "Monthly blood storage levels, human victims list, Flandre's instability tracking levels, fairy maid attendance… Nothing interesting."

Remilia, meanwhile, had attacked a pile of yellowing papers under the label of "Absolutely Mundane and Not Important Items" and was quickly leafing through them, not bothering to keep the minor level of organization that had existed earlier. "If I remember correctly, it has to be somewhere between Meiling's employment contract and the statement of Yukari's real age—all twenty pages containing the full number." She grinned sheepishly and glanced at Sakuya with hopes that she could playfully joke with her servant to familiarize the atmosphere between them this night, but she noticed that the maid was busy flipping through other archive items and did not seem to respond to the humorous statement at all. "Heh, that's, uh, a joke, Sakuya… you know?" Remilia laughed nervously at her own joke in an attempt to calm herself down, but it did little to the hurricane of emotions happening within her mind, and the abnormal, absentminded, delayed murmur from her maid acting as a response only made matters worse. Turning back to the pile of papers, she continued to flip through the dividing tabs in the stack until her finger ran along one labeled "Scarlet Devil Mansion Deed". Unsurprisingly, as Remilia pushed all of the papers above it to the side, she found the contents of the tab to be completely empty. "Well, just as I suspected and feared, the deed's nowhere to be found in here."

"I guess the one I found _is_ the real one, then," Sakuya said, briefly glancing over her shoulder in the dim light at her mistress's facial expression of fear. As she turned back to the shelves she was next to, her eyes briefly caught sight of one of the documents of the "Absolutely Mundane and Not Important Items" pile that Remilia had scattered all over the room. This one particularly caught her eye due to the fact that it was titled "April 22, 1997 – Keine Kamishirasawa". Sakuya had to briefly stop and ponder about this document, for she knew that neither she nor Remilia had met Keine, were-hakutaku guardian of the Human Village, prior to the Imperishable Night incident four and a half years ago, and she could not even recall the Scarlet Devil Mansion being situated in Gensokyo as early as 1997.

Before Sakuya could approach the document that had piqued her curiosity, however, she was interrupted by Remilia uttering a loud, aggravated shout. "Damn!" The vampire turned to her maid and frowned in an irritated manner, a welcome change from the nervous look Sakuya had seen on her before. "That glass Koakuma accidentally shattered while cleaning in here a week ago still has a couple of shards lying around, and I scraped my arm against one on this pile! I thought you told me you cleaned them all up already."

Sakuya let all of the rebellious thoughts and curiosities about the mysterious document in her mind leave for the moment, and she assumed an apologetic, subservient bowing stance as a perfect and elegant maid should, scanning her mistress's arm for any blood from the wound but only finding a superficial scratch on it. "My apologies, my lady; I had wrongly believed that I had gotten rid of them all. If I recall correctly, I believe you had kicked a few around into inaccessible corners while leaving the room."

Remilia smiled nostalgically and began to look back into her memories as well. "Yes, I guess I did do that then. After all, I was really mad at Koakuma, and so I stormed toward the door without caring about messing up anything…" As she continued to remember what had happened, her face suddenly contorted into a mixed expression of guilt, dread, and knowledge, and Sakuya retreated a few steps back in case what would inevitably be revealed was too terrible to avoid hitting the nearest living creature over. "…forgetting to lock the door behind me! How could I have been so stupid, Sakuya?! Koakuma obviously broke the glass on purpose because she knew I'd forget to lock the door in my rage, and so she just swiped the deed later on!" She slapped her forehead in frustration, and the hand that did so slowly slid down until it was covering her eyes. "It's my fault; I know that I forget to do important things like lock doors when I'm very angry, and yet I neglected to realize that wretched little devil was playing me until now!"

Sakuya pondered the situation for a few seconds. "Patchouli told me that she was working with Youmu to track where Koakuma is headed; since the little devil is bound to tell us what her purposes with stealing the deed are, maybe we should go see her."

"I guess we can do that," Remilia agreed in a calmer tone, "but we'd better seal away the real deed right now before it falls into the wrong hands… again, I suppose I should say. Like Flandre's… I… mean…." A shiver went down Sakuya's spine as she heard Remilia's speech regarding her sister trail off, and it was elevated as she watched her mistress turn her back to her while quivering almost violently. "Sakuya." This time, her voice was eerily calm, and Sakuya felt as if it was a powder keg that could be set off by a cricket rubbing its legs together in the wrong way. "I did lock the door to the basement after angrily leaving Flandre's quarters this evening, didn't I?"

"My lady, I assume so, but I was not there to—"

"I must have," she responded with false confidence. "The archive room door is one thing, but I would never forget to seal Flandre away from going upstairs, right? No, no, I'm getting worked up over nothing; this is silly. Isn't it, Sakuya? Totally hilarious!" Remilia began laughing as forcefully as she could, although it began to sound more like choked-back crying than what it was intended to sound like.

"Please, get a hold of yourself, my lady," Sakuya said as coolly as she could, but finding that her voice too was choppy out of anxiety and fear. "Let's just handle this with a calm mind."

Remilia gave no verbal response, but Sakuya could see that her eyes indicated what she would do next. Ignoring both Sakuya and a fairy maid (the same one Flandre had first encountered in her journey outside the basement) who had stuck her head into the room with a concerned expression on her face, she dashed out from the archive room into the main area of the library, attempting to reach the deed where Sakuya had placed it on one of the great wooden desks in the center as soon as (in)humanly possible.

When she reached it, however, she was met with the worst she had anticipated. Standing in the doorway leading out of the library was none other than the young vampire sister herself, Flandre Scarlet, clutching the coveted deed tightly to her chest. "F-Flandre!"

"Hi, Remi!" Flandre shouted to her sister in a faux-friendly tone, grinning triumphantly as she felt the paper being safely contained in her hand. "Whatcha doing? Oh yeah, I remember now: trying to seal away the evidence proving that your little sister shouldn't be forever locked in the basement like a cute Frankenstein's monster, right? Sounds like fun!"

Remilia produced a horrible choking sound as if Flandre had wrapped her hand around her sister's throat, and she took a moment to inhale deeply. "Flandre, you don't understand what's going on. That couldn't be further from my intention."

Flandre laughed sharply, and though the sound was high-pitched, childish, and cute to Remilia's ears, it instantly silenced her with its connotations. "Honestly, Remi, I'm kind of insulted you think I'd be fooled with that. You know I wasn't born yesterday; maybe you've lost track of the time, but it's been _500 years_! And anyway, you pretty much spilled your guts out about this whole thing to Sakuya in your study without checking to see if I were listening after you forgot to lock my door again, didn't you? Not your brightest idea ever, I have to say."

"That's what I was about to tell you, Miss Scarlet!" the fairy maid shouted as she zipped across the library's sky, nearly colliding with Remilia as she came to a halt. "Flandre forced me to tell her where your study is, and I guess that's where she went right then. I wanted to tell you earlier, but I was afraid she was still listening… it doesn't really matter at this point, though."

Remilia and Flandre both glared at the timid fairy maid who began cowering under the two fiery stares, and then Remilia turned back to her sister with earnest, pleading eyes. "Please, Flan; I promise you with my entire heart that I'm not lying to you now. This situation is very complicated, but if you come and sit down here, I would be happy to explain it to you."

Flandre smirked nastily and began to mock her sister's vocal tones. "'…and then snatch the precious deed out of your grubby little fingers and have Sakuya happily escort you back down to the basement, where you'll spend the rest of your long, undead life rotting away until you're nothing but a moldy pile of bones with a broken mind. That's just because I love my little sister Flandre so very much, yes.'"

A couple of tears began to drip from two scarlet eyes onto similarly red cheeks from the harshness of the words, but Remilia quickly wiped them away with her arm. "Damn you, Flandre!" she shouted hotly. "Can't you listen to your older sister for once? I swear on Sakuya's life that I'm only trying to help you here. Please, just stop being stubborn for one minute and hear me out on this!"

Flandre walked out of the doorway of the library, back down to the foot of the steps, and stared at her sister eyes as her wings began to unfurl behind her. "I have listened to you for once. That was the time you said, 'Don't worry, Flan; it will only be for a short while. You just need to stay in the basement a little bit until you learn to control your emotions so no accidents occur. Trust me on this; you'll be out in no time.' That was half a millennium ago, right?" Her facial expression lost all traces of a smile, and she curled her lip back to expose her fangs before she proceeded to shout at the top of her lungs, "_**SO FORGIVE ME IF I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING LISTEN TO YOU AGAIN!**_"

Before Remilia, stunned into complete silence by her sister's sudden outburst, could react by angrily scolding her or pleading with her some more, Flandre leapt into the air, using the library table as a sort of launching pad for her feet, and proceeded to approach the great window on the side wall after dodging a couple of tall bookshelves in her way. Before the young vampire could actually reach what she considered to be a gateway to freedom, however, Remilia managed to catch her breath and look at her sister in horror. "Flandre, stop this at once! Nothing good can come out of exposing the contents of that deed to the world."

"Go to hell." Flandre quickly scanned the window for the latch that would lock it in place, and deliberately locked it once she did.

Wasting no time once she realized what her sister was about to do, Remilia turned to Sakuya, who had quietly emerged from the archive room to stand next to her mistress. "Sakuya! Stop Flandre from flying through the window, and bring her back here to me right now!"

It was a very simple command, and one that would be no trouble for one like the time-stopping maid to fulfill. All she had to do was freeze the flow and carry the unmoving Flandre back to her mistress, subduing her with a few knives during this time. That was, of course, if she indeed wished to carry out the orders. The part of her mind that had served Remilia for years now was berating her for even debating this and ordering her to obey her mistress by stopping Flandre at that moment, but the part from which her rebellious thoughts had spawned from earlier was arguing that it would be immoral to crush the little vampire's last hopes of avoiding a miserable fate by complying with the order. It was the truth that Flandre deserved all of the wealth, glory, and freedom that her sister did, and Sakuya felt as though she could not try to cover that up with a clean conscience in her heart.

Perhaps, Sakuya realized, she had spurred the conflicting thoughts in her mind as a subconscious method to stall out the time until Flandre did indeed crash through the great window headfirst. Sure enough, while the maid was still lost in thought, an almost euphonic smashing sound resounded through the library as millions of tiny shards of glass caught the light of the moon outside and glittered like twinkling stars as they showered the floor. At that point, she could only watch as the glowing prisms of Flandre's wings slipped into the darkness of the night and began to fade away before being completely enveloped by the black.

"Sakuya, you idiot! Why didn't you stop her?!" Remilia didn't wait for an answer to her angry reprimand, however, as she opened her black bat-like wings to the world to prepare to fly after her escaped sister.

In all likelihood, she probably would have been able to catch up with Flandre if she had begun to pursue her at that moment. Being inexperienced with battling, the younger sister would have lost the inevitably ensuing danmaku duel, and she would subsequently be brought back to the mansion. There, Flandre would be told about Remilia's reasons for locking her away in the basement for all this time and why she was overly concerned with the contents of the deed being revealed. The smooth, eloquent words her older sister would articulate would certainly not fail to convince her that she was indeed in the wrong for attempting to escape, and she would then willingly, albeit sadly, return to the basement on her own accord. It would be an ending to the conflict between the sisters if Remilia had started after her sister right at that very moment.

Putting a firm end to this path of resolution was the swift foot of Hong Meiling, who made her secret presence in the library known by delivering a sharp kick to Remilia's back, forcing the vampire face-first onto the ground before she could get airborne. "Yaaaaaah!" she cried out as if to summon more strength into her kick before elegantly hopping back a step to land on her feet standing above her fallen mistress.

"Meiling?" Remilia groaned, tenderly rubbing the spot of injury on her back as she turned her head around, a look of disappointment in her eyes. "Koakuma and Flandre weren't enough, so now you're turning against this house as well?" She turned her head back toward the floor as to hide her face from both of the girls, but from it, her scarlet eyes began to gleam brilliantly as she continued to gently touch the wound.

"Miss Remilia," Meiling answered in a strong and defiant tone, "I have nothing personal that would cause me to betray you. However, Flandre told me the full truth about what she is actually owed according to this mansion's deed, and what you plan on doing about it. I'm sorry, but I can't stand by and support you on this."

Sakuya admittedly felt surprised that the gatekeeper she often looked down upon would have similar feelings as herself and have the bravery to act upon them in the presence of her mistress, but seeing Remilia fallen on the floor with Meiling standing over her instantly changed that. "My lady," she said calmly as she began to brandish six silver knives in the gatekeeper's vision, "shall I eliminate Meiling now?" As she stared down the gatekeeper who was doing her best to appear calm and brave even while shaking in fright, she brought the knives into a battle formation, only waiting for the quick approval from her mistress to unleash a devastating blow with them.

"No." The response, albeit short, was voiced in a very hungry, lustful tone, and Sakuya could see a very ravenous look spreading over her mistress's face as she turned around again with a foreboding smirk. It was the same expression she had displayed a few hours earlier, only it was now outside the safety of her bedroom and within range of an exceptionally appropriate victim. "No, go out, stop Flandre, and bring her back to me." She wrapped her arm tightly around Meiling's leg, almost to the point of cutting off the circulation, and stared up into her eyes with a look of utter delight and anticipation. "It's better if I give Meiling the appropriate punishment now. It's been oh so long since I've had the pleasure of performing it, so I think it would be quite fun to finally use it as proof of what happens if you attempt to betray me!"

"I think that's what she wants you to do," Sakuya responded quickly, "as a way to stall you until Flandre gets sufficiently away. Let me quickly incapacitate her now so you can head after your sister right away." Although she primarily felt anger for Meiling at her sudden action, the part of her that sympathized with her actions did not want the poor gatekeeper to be subjected to Remilia's horrifying "punishment". In fact, witnessing the girl tremble terribly as she watched the hungry vampire viciously attach herself to her leg made even the loyal part of Sakuya feel a twinge of sympathy for Meiling.

"Nope," Remilia replied happily, slowly licking her lips and grinning to expose her fangs to the others. "I'm going to punish Meiling. That's it."

"B-but," Sakuya nervously protested, "going as far as to drain her dry of her blood is a bit harsh for this, my lady! I think a quick and sound defeat would be much less cruel."

Remilia frowned, and her scarlet eyes began to blaze like wildfires as she shifted her glance toward her maid. "You're not going to talk me out of this right now, unless you're offering yourself up in her place. Blood will satisfy my thirsty body tonight, even if death must result from it!"

These words rang into Sakuya's ears like a funeral bell toll, and it tossed her stomach into a horridly wretched mess of a dilemma. In her heart, she knew that Meiling was acting in the moral right by resisting Remilia and attempting to help Flandre: acts that Sakuya herself wished to perform if she only had the courage to disobey her mistress now. Furthermore, the terrified, pleading eyes that stared at her, begging the maid profusely to save her from the fate she had just condemned herself to, made her conscience throb intensely with guilt. Sakuya knew that it would be horribly wrong of her to do nothing and simply allow Meiling to suffer an involuntary blood donation for bravely taking action and protecting the younger vampire she loved.

_But I can't_, she thought to herself. _I can't simply throw away all of Miss Remilia's trust in me for the events of one night, even if it means Meiling must suffer as a result_. She frowned, gritting her teeth, and shook her head. _How can I even think something like that? It sounds so utterly selfish and uncaring of me. Meiling might be a lazy, useless gatekeeper, but she still puts a lot of faith in me as a friend. And then I'm to assume that I should just throw her to the wolves… er… vampire, like nothing at all?_

_Even if I were to try to help Meiling and attack Miss Remilia, strange as that sounds_, her rational, strategic side chimed in, _how would I ensure that the two of us would manage to fend off the resulting attacks? My lady is certainly most powerful in the dead of night, and during a time in which bloodlust has taken control of her mind… how could I hope to avoid being defeated and subsequently drained of blood by such a force as that?_

"Well, Sakuya?" Remilia asked impatiently, as one forbidden to eat while staring down a juicy steak in a restaurant would. "What say you? Are you going to let me have a refreshing gulp of your plasma to save poor little China's, or are you going to get a move on and bring Flandre back?"

_Damn you, my lady_, Sakuya thought bitterly to herself at the decision posed at her. _Of all the times to be craving blood, why did it have to be right now?_ She laughed softly at how unlikely it would have been for her utter that phrase in almost any context prior to this night. "Well… I…" She glanced nervously at both Meiling's pitiful awaiting of an impending doom and Remilia's lustful smile.

"Yes?" Remilia asked, beginning to grow slightly irritated at the time it was taking Sakuya to answer. Blood was out there, after all, and it was unfair that she should be deprived of it for so long.

Sakuya lightly embraced Meiling in a friendly manner, though it seemed to convey more sadness and pity than friendship. "I'm so sorry about this, Meiling," she whispered in the gatekeeper's ear. "It's just… there's no way I could hope to defeat Remilia, and—"

"I-i-it's okay," Meiling stammered back, quiet defeat and a surprisingly insightful knowing in her voice. "I understand; you don't need to justify it. I was prepared for this sort of thing to happen when I agreed to help Flandre, anyway."

"Even so," Sakuya murmured regretfully, "I feel horrible leaving you like this. I hope you can forgive me about this in the future."  
>"There's nothing to forgive," Meiling replied solemnly. "You're doing the only thing you can do in a situation like this. Don't worry about it!"<p>

"If you kick yourself free of Miss Remilia's grasp and then use that head start to your advantage and run like the wind, you could make it out of here before she… well…"

"I'll keep that in mind, Sakuya-sama," Meiling replied with a quick smile before gently pushing her companion away. "Better go now before the mistress changes her mind and decides to try biting us both!"

Sakuya didn't want to admit it, but she did feel great compassion for her friend at that point, although it made it all the more harder to abandon her. "I'm sorry, Meiling!" she repeated once more before turning back to Remilia. "Um… I guess I'll just… get back Flandre."

"Good girl!" Remilia replied victoriously as she got back onto her feet, all the while keeping her grip on Meiling's leg strong. "I have to say, I was hoping a bit that you'd defend Meiling here so I could have a taste of that fabulous mortal blood coursing through your veins. Still, I imagine that disobedient youkai blood is almost as good!" Reaching up, she shifted her hands to hold on tightly to Meiling's arms, and briefly turned to the fairy maid that was still standing quietly and observing all that was going on. "Lock all the doors leading to the outside. If my prey decides to start playing a futile game of cat and mouse, I'd rather it remain indoors."

"Of course, Miss Remilia!" the fairy answered quickly, and began to fly over the sea of shattered glass to the library door. "Nobody will get in or out without your permission, I promise!"

Trying not to build up her guilt of letting Meiling down any further, Sakuya withdrew without another word, elegantly stepping around the minefield of jagged shards as she, too, approached the exit.

The only two who now remained in the quiet, moonlit library were a vampire mistress lusting terribly for some blood to pass by her lips and a gatekeeper who, despite being scared out of her wits and deprived of her last possibility of escape from this nightmare, managed to keep a strong, unwavering expression on her face. Remilia began to slowly push Meiling back toward the posterior section of the library, all the while keeping her grasp on her arms strong. Little pieces of glass crunched and crackled beneath their feet, but each ignored the pain in favor of paying attention to what would come next. "Well, then, Meiling," Remilia said in her rich, lovely tone of voice, "let's not waste any more time. Your punishment shall commence now!"

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** Hello once again, all. The end of my by-far longest chapter up to this point has come (I had to again cut out one scene until next chapter, and even with only 3 scenes to it, I can safely say this is chapter the one I have spent the most time on so far), and with it, a new title to the story has emerged!

I guess I didn't explicitly say it earlier, but my previous title was just a placeholder, since I couldn't really think of an appropriate title to the story yet. Over the course of the last few months, however, this title came to me, so say hello to Temporal Quintessence! Like many titles, it may not be clear from right now why the title is called what it's called, but I hope that you'll keep it in the back of your mind as you read the upcoming chapters and begin to puzzle it out.

As I mentioned earlier, this chapter would feature the debut of my favorite character, and so it has! Nue Houjuu, the devious little imp, joins the fray. I like her so much, but I might not remain that way by the time the end of the story arrives. Since the plot here takes place between Subterranean Animism and Undefined Fantastic Object, this could be considered a prequel to Touhou 12, in that we learn exactly what Nue might have done as soon as she left the underground and before she learned of Byakuren's group. So, remember that this isn't the rational, yet mischievous Nue that we're familiar with, somewhat tamed by the peaceful Buddhist's ways; this is the ancient, sealed-away youkai girl whose primary motive is to strike fear in all she meets. Be afraid, readers. Be very afraid.

The situation growing between Remilia and Flandre has boiled over into action, and a fight seems imminent on the horizon! Who is the protagonist and antagonist of the battle? Either way, Meiling is the one I'm rooting for. The poor girl has spent way too much time as the butt of everyone's jokes (the particular role of which I seem to have subconsciously designated to Reimu in this story, oddly enough), so it's high time she has a few awesome moments. Keep strong, China! …Err, I mean, Meiling!

As usual, look forward to the next chapter, where we will learn what happens next to Meiling, Sakuya, Remilia, Flandre, Cirno, Daiyousei, Youmu, Yuyuko, Reisen, Patchouli, Eirin, Marisa, Alice, and Suika (you didn't forget about her from Chapter 2, did you?)! See you all then!


	9. 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM

While it wasn't Remilia Scarlet's direct intentions (though it would still be a lie to say she did not appreciate it), journeying through the hallways of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, either on foot or in flight, nearly always left one with an unsettling, foreboding feeling within his or her heart. It was as though there was always a dark pool of madness lurking just below the surface of reality waiting eagerly in anticipation for the perfect moment to make itself known and flood the hallways in its insane liquid. When Remilia appointed Hong Meiling as gatekeeper in order to provide a friendlier and less threatening image of the mansion years back, she likely did not know that it would be this very youkai who would destroy the dam holding back the pent-up fluid and cause it to flow into activity.

All it took was a sharp kick to revert Remilia from her cool, charismatic self back to the terrifying Scarlet Devil, notorious and frightening to all. This was not the kick Meiling had first delivered to prevent the vampire from chasing after her sister, but a second one aimed directly in the solar plexus per Sakuya's advice to free herself from the binding and immovable grip she had been placed in. Remilia's response was to leap backward a step or two, completely unfazed by the kick, and cackle in delight over the walking dish of Chinese food that stood before her. "Cool and savory as a youkai like you would likely have or hot and sweet like a traitor's blood ought to be… any guesses as to how your blood will taste on my lips, China?"

"Like air, since I don't intend to let you taste a single drop of it," Meiling answered firmly, holding up her fists in a battle stance but remaining vigilant about running at any given moment if it would prove necessary.

"What wishful thinking," Remilia chuckled, her crimson eyes nearly boring holes into her prey. "It's a shame that I'm going to have to crush it for you."

As the vampire stared her gatekeeper down, her wings opened up again toward opposite ends of the library. At that point, Meiling realized it would be suicide to let herself remain there without running, frozen in fright from the daunting figure before her with wings spread like a praying mantis's. Closing her eyes in an almost serene manner, she inhaled and exhaled deeply a few times and concentrated intently on being aware of and accepting the fear within her mind. Fortunately, the Chinese youkai had become very adept at meditation, and thus she was successful in quickly dominating the terror that had ruled her body and regained control over her legs. Without waiting for Remilia to inevitably swoop toward her in a typical vampire-like fashion and attempt to bite her neck, Meiling leapt several feet forward and proceeded to dash as quickly as she could to the old door of the library.

Once again in the hallways of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Meiling tried to focus her mind on one thing: running. As Remilia mockingly called to her in a voice that seemed to echo from every direction, it was "the most dangerous game of hide and seek in your life", and losing would mean giving up more than a healthy dose of blood, and likely the plan she and Flandre had organized as well.

It was rather bewildering, she thought to herself. While sprinting as fast as she could down the corridor, she had no idea where her vampire mistress currently lay. The most logical conclusion, considering that Remilia did not begin pursuing Meiling as the gatekeeper left the library, was that she was somewhere behind her, jumping stealthily from shadow to shadow to close the gap between her and her meal.

However, as Meiling reached the end of the current hallway and flung herself up a set of elegantly carved, ornate steps leading up to the next floor of the mansion, she remembered something that the young, knowledgeable, reincarnating Hieda no Akyuu had written in her first history book of Gensokyo in the section concerning vampires: they apparently have the strength of an oni and, more importantly, the speed of a tengu.

Meiling wasn't sure if the facts were true; after all, Akyuu never included sources in her articles, and certain claims about the well-known denizens of Gensokyo seemed more like high school gossip than indisputable facts. Even so, she considered, it would be foolish of Remilia to not instantly halt her progress with a devastatingly powerful spell card and instead simply chase the gatekeeper down without possessing the aforementioned abilities. Of course, if she did indeed have that sort of strength, it would be pointless for Meiling to waste her energy on attempting to run away.

"Keep going, China!" the girlish yet refined voice of the vampire encouraged mockingly. "I'm sure you can outrun me if you try hard enough."

Meiling sighed and looked around in all directions, trying to address her directly. "Miss Remilia, I would appreciate it if you didn't tease me like this. If you want to come taste my blood, you should simply get on with it already."

"Oh, but what _would_ be the fun in that?" Remilia giggled sadistically. "I've held back for years from chasing down a hapless, little victim in these hallways, so why should I cut this game of cat and mouse short so quickly!"

"How cruel of you," Meiling muttered bitterly. If she continued on with her current action, she realized in despair, it would simply go on and on until she would reach the point of exhaustion and then be subjected to a humiliating, merciless defeat, no breath remaining in her lungs to even whisper a word of protest. A new plan of stalling for time until Remilia would lose her blood-induced state of madness was needed, and she had to put it into motion immediately.

Without bothering to even check the label on the door to her immediate left in the dimly light hallway, she gave it a sharp kick at its hinges, causing it to crash inward and then rest crookedly on one side of the inside wall like a wounded animal. With the interior of the room exposed, Meiling leapt inside and quickly surveyed her new surroundings. The lavender walls, floor, and bedspread of what could now be identified as a small, personal bedroom and its neatly stacked bookcase made Meiling assume with fair certainty whose room it was, but she set that thought aside as she focused on the main issue at hand. Spotting a deep purple, velvet reclining chair that looked ideal for reading on backed against one corner of the room, she hopped into the triangular crevice between the chair and the two walls and crouched down as low to the ground as she could.

_As long as Patchouli stays out of her bedroom or is at least in a good mood, _Meiling thought in relief to herself, _I should be safe from Remilia here. Well, for now, anyway._

Still, even with Meiling having found a hiding spot, it was not very difficult for Remilia to determine which room the gatekeeper had escaped into with an entire hallway of perfectly straight doors and one collapsed, lopsided one. "Hey, Meiling," Remilia laughed in delight as she stood in front of the busted door, "you do know that hunting down elusive prey only sharpens my craving, right? In my current state, I might be able to drain you completely dry and still have room for a taste of Sakuya!" That made Meiling shiver in her spot of refuge behind the chair, but thankfully nobody could see her doing that.

Remilia cheerfully skipped into the room with a joyous expression on her face, her skirt billowing behind her from the movement. It occurred to Meiling that, in spite of all her constant attempts at retaining full charisma among others, the girl did carry some natural resemblance to her sister in personality and attitude. _If Remilia wasn't so preoccupied with maintaining her image as the older sister and head of the mansion, _she thought, _she could be very close to her sister, and I might not have become stuck in this situation._

"Now where, oh where, could my little China be?" Remilia asked in a singsong voice. The vampire dove toward the grand, queen-sized, lavender bed lying against the center of the west wall. Her knees slid from the momentum against the light purple plush rug in the middle of the floor fast enough to get her to the edge of the bed but not too fast as to get rug burn. "Is she under here?" she wondered aloud, flipping the part of the bedspread that hung over the edge and touched the floor upward with a grin. "Is our little gatekeeper hiding under the bed from the big, scary bogeyman?" Her crimson, glowing eyes, pierced every corner of the rectangular area with a sinister light, but they did not illuminate anything living, if dust bunnies don't fall under that criteria. "Well," she announced, "there's only a few places you can hide in a place as sparsely furnished as Patchouli's room, so what do you say we finish things up here—HEY!"

Something had grabbed onto Remilia's two little feet, the only part of her exposed from under the bed, and was proceeding to drag her feet-first from her searching position. As Remilia whipped her head around and freed it from the hanging bedspread to spot what had grabbed her, careful to make sure her head did not bang against the underside of the bed, she was surprised to look into the eyes of someone who was certainly too aloof to be Meiling.

"With all due respect, Miss Remilia," Patchouli said, a half-smile brightening her dull eyes, "I prefer to think of it as simple and uncluttered rather than sparse. Now, could you perhaps be kind enough to tell me why on Earth you broke my door down and hid under my bed?"

Remilia grinned wildly at Patchouli and licked her lips. "Meiling is attempting to escape the rightful punishment I'm giving her. Not that she can, of course; I ordered all the mansion exits to be locked, but she's still trying to hide from me. Anyway, since she couldn't have had enough time to set a decoy before hiding with me chasing her just slowly enough to give her a fair head start, it's pretty obvious she's hiding in here. With her being so uselessly lazy, it's actually a hit surprising that she didn't pick the bed as a hiding spot!"

"You're... 'punishing her'?" Patchouli questioned, an inquisitive look in her eyes. "What did she do to you that would warrant something like that?"

Remilia sniffed, clearly annoyed at having been stalled in her chase as she gazed around the room for her hidden prey. "Flandre found out about her true inheritance and status in the mansion, and she seemed none too pleased about me covering it up all this time and keeping her in the basement, to put it lightly. So she and Meiling conspired together to expose the truth to Gensokyo, and she actually managed to flee the mansion with the deed as evidence in her hand. I sent Sakuya out searching for her, but I frankly needed to punish someone at this very moment; those peaceful blood donation meals I've been eating lately just can't compare to a live victim, and the Scarlet Devil has reached the limit she can go to without going crazy or something."

"Oh my," Patchouli said, stifling a chuckle, "that's certainly... unfortunate for you. See, this is why I warned you about setting up such a fragile system of combating the catastrophe to begin with, what with locking your sister in the basement this whole time and all."

"You did nothing of the sort!" Remilia argued, her arms crossed in frustration.

"Oh yes, I most certainly did," Patchouli replied, a small, dark smile beginning to work its way across her lips. "You were so devastated by everything that had happened that you were willing to do anything just to keep your household together. Flandre being sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest was the only obvious solution posed to you, and so you took it without a second thought. I implored you to wait and think things through until a method of less extreme measures became apparent, but _of course_ you would have none of it. With the way you decided to act, something was bound to happen, and then your 'great' plan would fall apart faster than that _magnificent _charismatic image of yours."She tried to choke down another snicker, but this one couldn't be contained.

Remilia stared unusually calmly at her librarian, making not a single sound in the dark bedroom. "Patchouli," she finally growled softly after a few moments, lightly pushing the librarian back a pace or two, "you are very, _very_ lucky that you have anemia and therefore don't have blood succulent enough to taste. Yes, you're quite fortunate, because if you didn't, you'd better believe I would have absolutely _no_ problem with draining your vessels bone-dry. Just keep that in mind."

Having voiced her threat very clearly, Remilia relaxed her intimidating pose and relaxed again, though the terrifying sense of hunger still gleaned in her eyes. "I only did what was asked of me; why don't you go laugh it up with everyone else because Flandre couldn't handle her unwitting role in the scheme of things!" She snorted and looked disdainfully at Patchouli. "Maybe I should have chosen to confide in Meiling on this instead of you; she might be quite dumber than you, but she does care for Flandre as much as—or maybe even more than—I do, and she wouldn't be dryly scolding me like this when things start to fall apart."

"Well, you certainly dropped the ball on brainstorming better ideas to handle the aftermath of a disaster than putting away such an energetic, curious girl like Flandre for good, but I suppose you're right about being forced into acting that way by her." Patchouli diverted her vision to the corner of her room that housed the recliner and reduced her expression to a flat gaze. "Regarding the other subject, though, I think you pretty much had no choice but to keep me in the loop for this situation. I don't think Meiling would have been able to emotionally or intellectually handle it, and Sakuya obviously wouldn't have been suitable for being an assistant to developing the plan.

"Anyway, if I can put it bluntly, having an episode of blood craving and going mad from it right now is absolutely detrimental to our efforts of finding out the identity, motives, and plans of those who tried to kill Miss Remilia earlier this evening and are attempting to set a revolution into motion. I realize that by announcing this, Meiling," she said while maintaining her stare at the recliner, "it seems a rather cruel and uncaring act on my part. Rest assured, however, that in the ultimate outcome of things, it's the most efficient way of dealing with things and will cut your suffering to a minimum." She turned back to the vampire, who had begun to look all around the room in an attempt to discover where the one Patchouli was addressing lay. "Meiling is hiding behind the reclining chair in the corner of the room. Drink her blood until you return to a calm, normal state of mind."

At that very moment, the embers in Remilia's eyes were rekindled, and she pounced on the chair, fangs glistening in the dim light of the bedroom. Meiling yelped in fear as she stood up and revealed her (already known) presence to the room. She attempted to escape the cramped hiding spot she was stuck in, but hopes of that were quickly dashed as the young vampire put her hands on her gatekeeper's shoulders and launched herself into the space behind the chair as well, her target being the Chinese girl's soft, fleshy skin at the base of her neck.

"Well, China, looks like our little game has finally come to a close," the beautiful, fearsome, and terrifying Scarlet Devil, the character of history and legends, announced to the youkai cowering before her.

"Patchouli!" Meiling wailed at the last moment before she would succumb to the extraction of her blood. She wanted to implore the witch to give her even a small bit of assistance, get help from someone else, talk Remilia down from going through with the punishment, or at least show the slightest bit of sympathy, but she found she could do little in her current state but shout the girl's name. "Patchouli! Patchouli!"

"My apologies," Patchouli called out casually amid what had evolved from Meiling's pitiable shouts of the witch's name into horrendous noises of skin being impaled, the sinister sound of drinking, groans of seemingly sensual pleasure, and terror-stricken whimpers without even looking up as she rifled through the drawer in her bedside table. "We just need Remilia off this thirst for blood tonight as soon as possible. I'm anemic and thus would likely die from blood loss, Sakuya isn't around to provide her sanguineous services, and unfortunately Koakuma has not yet been captured; it would have been quite satisfying to punish her by appeasing our Scarlet Devil's hunger with an offering of her treacherous blood. Sadly, you're therefore the only suitable candidate for the activity. You should not be worried for your life; contrary to what she says, she only drinks enough to fill her light appetite, so you should certainly survive this with little physical trauma."

The witch's fingers stumbled upon various trinkets and items she presumed she had lost long ago at the same time Meiling sobbed loudly, "P-Please, Remilia-sama, forgive me for all I've done that's upset you! I'll guard the gate twenty four hours a day for the rest of my life and never sleep a second again if you want! Twenty five, even!"

Remilia paused her drinking for a moment and gazed at the quivering, sweating, petrified gatekeeper with a cruel smirk. "Would you be willing to accept that you can never see Flandre again and forfeit to me all the details about the little plan she's carrying out? I'd let you go right now if you did that."

At that moment, even amid the supreme feeling of trauma that enveloped her, a definitive change of attitude came over Meiling after hearing that. She managed to choke down her fright for the moment and frown defiantly, ignoring the natural terror she felt from being in the dangerous Scarlet Devil's presence. "That... that's not going to happen. I can't do that." Remaining loyal to Flandre was what seemed to be one of the only things keeping her from having a complete breakdown, and she wasn't about to relinquish it.

Remilia cackled in amusement, tracing a carefully manicured fingernail gingerly over the gatekeeper's cheeks. "Oh, quit being such a foolish martyr clinging to this stupid sense of 'loyalty' you have toward my sister! Sakuya's unmatched in stealth abilities, so she's inevitably going to bring in Flandre very soon. Your one ticket out of here is going to delightfully slip away if you reject it, and for no good reason, too!"

"As terrifying as your punishment is," Meiling muttered, using up the last bit of courage her adrenaline would give her, "it's nothing compared to selling out Miss Flandre to you. Slice me into a hundred pieces if you want; Hong Meiling will never betray her true friends! I shall sooner accept your punishment than do that."

Remilia, even after being thwarted in her attempt at emotional domination, licked her lips sensually and giggled into the night. "As you wish! This delectable blood of yours is the real prize, anyway; it's more important than whether or not you break and concede both Flandre and your free will to me. I was curious about whether or not I could completely eliminate your emotional spirits, but it doesn't matter much to me right now."

In the middle of half-listening to the tense conversation taking place, Patchouli finally came across a small, blue, L-shaped, plastic object with a metal canister placed inside. "Ah, there's my inhaler," Patchouli said to herself, dropping the object into a pocket of her nightgown before turning back to the spectacle occurring behind her recliner. "Well, anyway, Eirin and I asked around to find out if anyone knew the whereabouts of Youmu or her mistress Yuyuko, who seems to have escaped from the library and has also gone missing for about an hour now. The only one who gave a reasonable answer was Tewi Inaba, Yuyuko's companion while in the holding room, and that was after Eirin had coerced her into speaking with some rather sharp words about possible discipline she could get into if she did not comply with us. Regardless, however, I'm off to discover what lies in the place she mentioned that would ensnare both Youmu and Yuyuko: Kourindou. If it proves fruitful, I should be one step closer to getting to the bottom of tonight's incident and helping young Chen see the one who condemned her maternal figure to death brought to justice. Wish me luck, Miss Remilia."

Remilia's only response was a loud murmur of pleasure, but it was sufficient for Patchouli. And so, Meiling's last hope of being saved from the horrific nightmare she had been placed in for supporting her friend Flandre nonchalantly strolled out her bedroom door, appearing completely indifferent to what she had just walked out on. The gatekeeper could only hope that her mind and spirit, the last things she seemed to hold over Remilia, would carry her safely through the rest of the night and not betray her as well.

* * *

><p>Darkness. It was the single concept Wriggle Nightbug had begun to think she would only perceive from here on out as Yuuka Kazami journeyed along somewhere with her and Rumia in tow. Being held hostage next to the friend who projected a ball of darkness all around her that would erratically shift in size and shape as its owner felt nervous or scared didn't help matters much at all for the firefly.<p>

Even so, Wriggle couldn't help but get the notion that her life could be snatched away before the darkness of the night would end. It was a mystery to her why she and Rumia were even needed as part of the ongoing plot. She had done her best to remain quiet, neutral, and avoid causing an angry argument when Cirno and Mystia had begun butting heads regarding what to do about the supposed revolution. It didn't take intelligence to realize the tense atmosphere in that situation, and so both Wriggle and Rumia had agreed it would be best to avoid taking a side in the situation and simply bow out of the conversation when the opportunity called for it.

So why did Mystia insist on having the two of them join her? This was what had baffled Wriggle as she lay in captivity for the past four hours, and it came into focus again as Yuuka briefly halted her movement for a second, likely to shift the way she carried the two or tend to a sore muscle. Clearly, it was part of a premeditated plan, even though the firefly wasn't exactly sure what that word meant when her mind stumbled upon it. The way Mystia happily and eagerly reassured them by saying, "Don't worry about it; by the time tomorrow comes to a close, you'll be heroes in the eyes of every youkai in the land!" only served to further strengthen the fear and confusion the little insect was harboring. Not only did she lack any talents or abilities to her knowledge that would allow her to become a hero among youkai, she contemplated, but why would "heroes" require being gagged and bound from movement?

Of course, Wriggle decided as she noted that the rate at which Yuuka was walking while carrying her and Rumia along had greatly increased, it all likely had to do with the fact that Mystia seemed to have gone crazy. The little firefly wasn't sure if insanity could be cured or if Mystia was going to be stuck with it for the rest of her life, but it was pretty obvious that her wide, empty eyes along with the way she acted to her friends and her decision to join the extremely dangerous Yuuka Kazami with any sort of plan were signs of the sparrow's sanity lapsing. However, the most disturbing thing she exhibited, in Wriggle's opinion, was the final line she spoke before flying off into the forest and leaving her two friends in the care of Reisen, who promptly sent them to be held by Yuuka in the old antiques shop: "Well, I'm off to give that fairy Lily White a hands-on demonstration on how to break every part of her body, one by one. Maybe then she'll finally realize she made a horrible mistake messing with the wrong bird." In all the time she had known her friend, Wriggle could not remember a single instance when Mystia had harbored a serious, unwavering grudge against someone else; not even the one against Yuyuko after the ghost seemingly ate her was very severe. She shuddered to imagine what exactly it was that Lily, such a seemingly cheery and harmless fairy, had done to upset the sparrow this badly.

Yuuka's movement stopped again, and this time she let out a sigh as if she would not begin walking again for a little while. The ball of darkness controlled by Rumia bounced around wildly and changed shape like an amoeba in response, appearing like a drop of jet-black in a sea of dark, navy nighttime. Although she couldn't be seen in such conditions, Yuuka smiled wistfully as she quietly observed what the youkai was doing.

After she gently lowered the two onto the damp, grassy ground she was standing on, she turned her attention to the smaller firefly youkai. "Wriggle?" she called out softly in the kindest voice she could muster. "Are you still awake?"

"Mmm," Wriggle murmured nervously through the bittersweet vine gag in her mouth, trying her best not to say anything that would offend the flower youkai while forgetting that she couldn't actually say intelligible words at the time.

"Good. There's something I should tell you about, and here seems like an ideal place to explain it." She took hold of the bittersweet vine gag in Wriggle's mouth and gently tugged at it to demonstrate what she was about to talk about. "If I take this away, do you promise not to scream?"

"Mmm-hmm." Likely due to being in such close proximity with Yuuka, a tiny wildflower growing in the dirt next to Wriggle began to slightly bend toward the firefly.

"Very well then." Yuuka slowly dragged the vine out of the mouth it had begun to bind itself to, and Wriggle immediately closed her mouth to relax her tired jaw before opening it again briefly to spit out the taste of the plant.

"Th-thank you, Miss Yuuka!" Wriggle stuttered, still trying to relax her mouth back to normal. The wildflower began to bend even further, lightly brushing against the exposed skin on the girl's arm. The feeling of its petals softly rubbing against her bare skin gave Wriggle a minor tickling sensation, but she focused on what Yuuka was about to say instead of a flower brushing against her.

Yuuka lightly grasped the firefly's other arm and looked into where she guessed her eyes were in the darkness. "I might as well get right to the point and spare you any tension of wondering about what I'm going to tell you: I'm setting you free."

"Wh-what?!" Wriggle tried to keep as calm of a composure as possible in case she was being led into a trap, but it was difficult to remain placid after such a claim as that.

Yuuka quickly scanned the area around her to check for eavesdroppers, although it was a rather futile action to try while being surrounded in impenetrable darkness, before returning to Wriggle. "When Reisen and I first engineered this plot for a revolution of Gensokyo that would transfer power to the weaker youkai of the land, one of the key points we discussed to ensure success involved the use of you younger youkai and your innate talents—or one of you, at least. Reisen and I agreed that Rumia would be critical to the plan, but she wanted to bring you along, too, using your life as a bargaining chip to either motivate Rumia to perform our needed activities or to convince your fairy friends to avoid intervening."

"I see." Although Wriggle knew the eventual outcome of the discussion, she couldn't tell how it would get there from here and what strings would become attached along the way. She twitched a bent antenna as she intently listened to and tried to commit to memory what the flower youkai was saying.

"So," Yuuka continued, "I decided that if her presence isn't necessary to putting the plan into action, I shouldn't keep around an innocent little youkai and use threats on her life as a way of coercing others into submission. It's not portraying a good image of me to the ones who will benefit from the revolution, and quite frankly, I'm tired of others associating me with doing and enjoying such, monstrous, sickening activities."

"Come again?" This was a new sort of angle Yuuka was going toward, and Wriggle, though still frightened, was curious about what she meant by it.

"You heard right." Yuuka sighed tiredly and opened her umbrella to the stars, spinning it slowly as she looked up nostalgically into the night sky. Wriggle could tell that something important was going to be said from a stance like that. "Apparently, since I'm very old and strong, I can't have a lighthearted attitude about me without others assuming that my jokes have darker connotations to them. I say teasingly a single time, 'Genocide is just another game', and all the residents of Gensokyo start believing that I'm an evil monster who's out to get them in a serial killing spree." She stooped to the ground and lightly stroked the petals of the creeping wildflower, which rustled blissfully in response. "And it's not helped by the fact that I'm extremely aggressive in protecting my friends and floral children but still strive to keep my temper as I deal with those who would threaten them. They assume the worst because I would rather stay calm as I attack them and drive them off than succumb to rage and become a uncontrolled danger to the entire land, though I admit that's a part of me I refuse to and probably can't change. Vexing, really."

Wriggle's eyes widened to the point of almost bulging out of their sockets, and since Rumia had finally settled her darkness orb down, the firefly could finally gaze into the melancholy, longing, ancient eyes of the flower youkai. They were a far cry from what Youmu had perceived as cruel, heartless orbs of fury when she had first met them three hours before. "I... never thought about it that way before." Wriggle's sense of wonder and astonishment quickly made way for her intrigue. "If that's how you really are, though, Miss Yuuka, couldn't you just start acting friendlier toward everyone?"

Yuuka laughed humorlessly and spun her umbrella once. "As if I've never tried that before. If I start doing that, everyone assumes I'm just putting up a nice facade to cover up an especially evil plan and then run away in fright. In fact, I'm rather surprised that you're taking this all in with a cool head and not getting scared or accusing me of lying. Granted, I suppose the fact that I _do_ use a faux polite and amiable attitude to scare others into submission when the situation calls for it isn't helping matters, but with the public opinion of me as it is, it's really one of the only ways I can act to successfully accomplish what I want. And besides that, I'm a... well... never mind about that." She rested her umbrella against the ground like a cane and sighed, smoothing out the wrinkles in her vest to keep her hands busy. "I guess I've brought it upon myself to be found frightening among others, but you have to understand that it's not my wish for everyone to treat me like this. Believe me, Bug Girl, if I could live peacefully among the people of Gensokyo without getting them so afraid—as long as they would keep their _damn_ fingers away from my flowers—I would."

"And yet you're running a campaign to get rid of all the oppressive youkai and humans in the land," Wriggle replied quietly, silently hoping she had used the big word she had only previously heard and not said correctly. Ordinarily, she would be far too terrified to boldly contradict or even say almost anything to Yuuka Kazami, but hearing what seemed to be heartfelt words from the scariest youkai in the land gave her a certain courage to be more upfront with her speech.

Yuuka allowed a sunny smile to cross her lips, ripping off first Wriggle's left arm, then her two antennae, and finally force-feeding the dismembered body parts to the intensely bleeding and emotionally traumatized insect. Or so she would have, if the rumors spread about Gensokyo on how the flower youkai responds to things said to her that she doesn't like were true. Instead, she simply shook her head patiently at the firefly. "It's a very complicated matter, but the eventual outcome should be peaceful, tranquil, and non-violent, if everything goes as planned. Then, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to live in a world that isn't scared stiff by the mention of my name."

Having reached an appropriate endpoint for the conversation, Yuuka looked downward at the short insect, smiling kindly. "Wriggle... let me express my gratitude toward you."

"For what?" Wriggle twitched her antennae furtively, still amazed at what had been revealed to her.

"Well, for being a person who could listen to an old lady tell her tale of woe, I suppose." The flower youkai ruffled the insect's hair playfully with one hand, still keeping her warm smile about her. "Even if you don't believe a word I said to you, I'm thankful that I could just let out my feelings to another on what might be my last day in Gensokyo, either in freedom or in life completely if my plan with Reisen fails and I'm caught. So, I mean it: thank you, my cute little bug!"

Looking up suddenly as if she had forgotten something, Yuuka picked up her umbrella and opened it again. "Anyway, I should be moving on now. If I don't arrive with Rumia in hand soon, she's going to start wondering about what I've been doing." She laid a single hand on the winding bittersweet plant that had wrapped itself tightly around Wriggle, and just like that, the winding vine began to uncoil itself from the firefly's body. As Wriggle began to profusely thank her, Yuuka simply put an index finger to the insect's lips. "No need to say anything; just go ahead and fly away from here. We're currently standing somewhere close to the base of Youkai Mountain, so you should be able to find your way to the Misty Lake and your friends fairly easily."

Wriggle quickly looked around in the area to try to spot any traps the youkai may have set, but she failed to find any in the darkness of the forest even without Rumia's darkness orb in her eyes. As the thought of her friend crossed her mind, she looked over at the little girl constrained by bittersweet. "Wh-what about Rumia, though?"

Yuuka smiled pleasantly and patted Wriggle lightly on the shoulder, gestures that no longer seemed frightening coming from the youkai. "Don't worry about her. She's not going to be hurt in any sort of way; she's just going to help us a little bit. After tomorrow evening, she'll be perfectly free to go wherever she wants, and neither she nor you will be bullied by stronger residents of the land or threatened by extermination any longer."

"...Really?" Although it was a relief to hear Yuuka acting peacefully and her expression of thought seemed quite sincere, there was something about the claim she promised about the plan with Rumia seemed a bit off to Wriggle. Of course, even after hearing the lament, she was not about to press Yuuka with claims of bring deceitful, but she couldn't help but still be worried for Rumia's safety and about whatever ulterior motives the flower youkai possessed. In the end, however, Wriggle decided to let it remain a gnawing itch in the back of her mind and not try Yuuka's patience, instead resolving to think it over and come to a conclusion in the safety among her friends. "I-I suppose I should get going then."

As Wriggle looked back on what had just happened to her as she scurried away into the woods and left Yuuka to continue journeying onward, she wondered what the future would hold for her and her friends. Would Rumia indeed stay safe in the hands of Yuuka, who all of a sudden admitted to not wanting to be as scary as she was? And would Wriggle herself stay safe as the "revolution" that seemed rather fishy would come into motion? The firefly was not one for standing in the face of danger in the past and would likely hide in a cave based on instincts, but she felt it would be quite necessary of her and her friends to not back away from this incident if they hoped to get to the bottom of it without losing their limbs, minds, or even lives.

* * *

><p>To say that the young Flandre Scarlet was amazed by the world outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion was a gross understatement, one that ought to be punished with an explosion brought on by the vampire herself. After she stopped flapping her wings a relatively long time after clearing the library window, Flandre decided to spend a moment taking in all her surroundings.<p>

To her, the land of Gensokyo bore a striking resemblance to the fantastic illustrations in some of the picture books Remilia had bought her, so much that she half-wondered if she had either been dreaming this entire time or would catch sight of fairy tale knights, dragons, and princesses running around in the open plain she was floating above. Indeed, the rolling meadows situated beyond the forests that enveloped the Misty Lake were full of shortly cut grass that looked prime for frolicking through as long as one did not mind running into a couple of man-eating youkai along the way. On the far edges of the horizon, Flandre caught sight of a thickly grown forest that seemed to exude an air of wonder, chaos, and noise all at the same time; a relatively close village protected by strong, tall brick walls with a mysterious bamboo forest beyond it; and, almost too far away to see, a grey, dead land dappled by unidentifiable blue and pink glowing lights that appeared to be floating on top of the sky itself. Taking it all in, Flandre was almost too astounded to remember her ongoing feud with Remilia.

"Gensokyo's _so_ pretty," Flandre gushed, wrapping her arms over her heart and around herself. "Someday I think I'll go explore the whole thing with Meiling if I get the chance to; I can't even begin to imagine what kinds of wonderful things and people I'll find in every little nook and cranny!" Just as the girl had begun imagining her own adventure for another day, her mind wandered upon thoughts of her older sister again. "And Remi wanted to keep me in the basement for all time and forbid me from seeing any of this. I can't believe it!"

With thoughts of her sister and her current situation returning to her conscious mind, Flandre set aside staring at the green, picturesque meadow she was flying above and focused on the plan she and Meiling had quickly developed. Turning around backward to face the direction of the mansion that had held her for so long, she looked at a great mountain rising out of the earth just next to the Misty Lake in an almost perfect rounded cone shape, seeming to hold a lake of its own at the very summit of the peak. "That must be the Youkai Mountain Meiling says everyone's been going to and talking about lately, huh? Looks like a big pimple on the land's face!" She giggled softly to herself at her silly simile before looking serious again as she attempted to recall her exact instructions.

"So, somewhere on that big mountain, there's a huge, cascading waterfall forming the entrance to the home of lots of tengu, both the wolf and crow variant. One of them is Aya Shame...me...mar...me...merimar... something, and she would definitely take interest in my story. Then she'd print it in her newspaper and spread the news around to everyone who lives in the land, and Remilia would have to start treating me with respect and letting me live like a normal person or else be thought of as a heartless tyrant by everyone else. So all I have to do is show her the deed," she said as she took out the precious document from her dress and examined it closely, "and I should be free from a lifetime of hell." Flapping her wings of rainbow prisms again, she began to soar off toward the mountain, still looking around in wonder at all the different sights that caught her eye. "And if Aya refuses to help me," she continued to herself as she flew to destination in the half-moonlit sky of Gensokyo, "I can always head across the Sanzu River—wherever that is; I guess I could ask someone—and tell that ultimate judge woman Shikieiki about what's going on, and then Remi definitely wouldn't keep depriving me of my rights after that! Meiling is so smart to come up with plans like this one; Sakuya must just be jealous when she apparently acts rude to her." Even though the girl had become rather short-tempered and bitter toward her sister in recent days, she still carried a natural, childlike optimism that was ironically carried about her like radiant sunlight, one of the very substances that could severely weaken her.

* * *

><p>As a matter of fact, as Flandre flew overheard en route to the waterfall on Youkai Mountain, her presence caused the land traveler Marisa Kirisame to look above into the sky after feeling as though a ray of sunlight had fallen on her and marvel at why in the world she would think the sun would suddenly rise in the middle of the night.<p>

"You're crazy," her traveling companion Alice replied with a quiet laugh to herself after Marisa explained to her why she suddenly looked into the sky, and Alice's right hand doll Shanghai made a strange, amused tittering noise with a lighthearted smile to concur. "Not only because you expected the sun would suddenly rise at two-thirty in the morning, I mean; just wanting to take a walk outside at this time of night and then suddenly getting the urge to go visit the underground is insane enough, especially after you just resolved a pretty hectic incident down there a month ago. I think Yukari and Yuyuko are getting some fierce competition in the Department of Wackos now!"

Marisa wiped her forehead of sweat with her forearm and scratched the back of her head, laughing lightly. "Harsh," she said pleasantly, grinning at Alice. "I just think Miss Satori would appreciate a little visit, 'specially since her pets and sister are the only company she ever gets. The least I could do is return the hospitality she showed me last time, you know?"

"In the middle of the night when this big incident is going on?" Alice folded her arms and raised one eyebrow in doubt. "Moreover, why choose to brighten up Satori's day when her home is so secluded? I'm sure Kaguya or Komachi would feel the same amount of appreciation—or a lack thereof, perhaps—as her, and are definitely easier to get to. Hell, you could even go to Bhava-Agra and drop in on Tenshi more easily!"

"Nah," Marisa replied in a nonchalant voice that almost suggested she had completely ignored what Alice had just said, "I just wanna go back to see the Palace of the Earth Spirits again! If that's too much to agree to, you shouldn't have started following me in the first place, ze."

Alice snorted and gave her partner a sardonic glance. "If I didn't notice you leaving the mansion in this zombie trance of yours, nobody would be there to keep you from falling off the face of the earth and landing your picture on the side of a milk carton! Be thankful at least _one _person in Gensokyo is willing to babysit you here and make sure you don't get into trouble."

Marisa grinned with amusement, dropping to her knees and proceeding to mockingly grovel at Alice's feet. "Oh, Divine Goddess whom I have entrusted my life to, how can I, a mere human in the presence of such a powerful and beautiful youkai, possibly repay the massive debt I must have incurred by asking of you such a formidable task?"

Alice rolled her eyes and nodded at Shanghai, who proceeded to lightly whack the back of Marisa's head with her tiny hand. "Knock it off, you idiot." Still, as Marisa scrambled back onto her feet, cracking up uncontrollably the entire time, Alice chuckled softly to herself. "Divine Goddess. Heh, I guess I wouldn't mind it if everyone kneeled and called me that whenever I would enter a room."

"See what I mean?" Marisa chuckled, brushing off any dust that had accumulated on her apron from kneeling on the ground and continuing to walk by her friend's side. "You're destined for power and greatness, Alice! Someday you'll reign over Gensokyo, and then maybe you'll command me to return your romantic affections!"

Marisa was hoping and expecting to get an embarrassed blush on her companion's cheeks from that, but Alice simply rolled her eyes and ordered her doll to slap the magician again, which she seemed to do with much pleasure. "Fat chance of that," she retorted. "If anything, when I have enough strength to enslave all of Gensokyo and take over as its supreme empress, your job will more likely be licking the Mary Janes my doll army members wear until they sparkle, all the while lying on the cold, hard ground beneath me!" Alice smiled wryly at her friend who bore a mystified look on her face upon hearing that. "Who knows; you might enjoy that even more than being my romantic partner!" With a couple of quick directions from her mistress, Shanghai eyed Marisa with a teasing grin and, from her position flying between the two girls, extended her tiny foot toward the magician, waggling it playfully in her face as if to request the service right then and there.

Marisa turned to Alice with a questioning glance in her eyes, but then laughed good-naturedly as she patted the doll that faced her on the head. "That's a very nice offer, but if it's all the same to you, I think I'll pass on playing your perverted domination and humiliation games, okay? Thanks."

Alice smiled wryly, shrugging her shoulders. "All right. It'd be just as fine for me to force you into becoming my broken slave once the land is mine if you don't want to be one right now."

The smirk was quickly wiped off Alice's face, however, as both she and Marisa all of a sudden caught sight of two moving figures approaching them from further on in the forest surrounding the base of the mountain. The movement of the two people who both appeared to be clad in blue dresses was erratic and shaky, and it appeared to Marisa as though they were leaning on each other for support as they walked. "What are those guys doing?!" Marisa anxiously quickened her pace into the woods toward the two, and Alice began to run beside her in order to keep up.

"C-Cirno," one of the two figures that Marisa and Alice now identified as fairies whispered. She wore a barrage of scratches and burns all over her body and seemed beyond the point of exhaustion from the look on her face, but turned her head weakly to her companion, who appeared to be in even worse shape than herself with much of her facial skin charred and blistered to a bizarre red and black mix. "I think we're finally saved!"

"Oh," Cirno replied in a hoarse, cracked voice, not turning her head to her friend or even bothering to slow her movement down. Now that the adrenaline from fighting "Hina" had dripped away from her body, escaping from Youkai Mountain had begun to feel like an incredibly old person's struggles to get out of bed in the morning while fighting arthritis to her, and the burning, throbbing pain that punished her legs every step she took had reduced her thought capacity to nearly a tenth of what it was before. Thinking would have allowed her to contemplate the pain she felt even further, and so the natural solution for her was to reduce herself into no longer thinking about almost anything. Realizing that she would have likely succumbed to the pain, failed to make it off the mountain, and perhaps dragged down Daiyousei with her if she had done anything else, Cirno had set her mind toward walking at a steady pace against all other possible obstacles.

Still, now that she had stumbled upon help and safety in the midst of the horrid night, she couldn't help but replay the image of the vicious fireball danmaku striking her over and over again while "Hina" looked on with a ruthless grin on her lips. While the thought caused the burns spread all over her face to sting cruelly and bring white-hot pain to her nerve endings, it also sent a shiver down her spine as she wondered about what could have happened to her if Reisen had not showed up to subdue the curse goddess. Up until now in her life, it had been almost unthinkable to her, but the notion that she could have died became a very real, chilling thought in her mind, and her body shuddered violently at the possibility.

"Cirno?" Daiyousei asked again gently, laying a hand on her friend's cheek but quickly recoiling after hearing a weak cry of pain in response. "Are you all right?"

"My god," Marisa exclaimed as she finally caught up with the two fairies, a concerned look on her face as she took notice of the scars and burns that decorated their bodies. "What did you two do? You look like you just escaped nuclear warfare or something!" The magician looked more closely at Cirno's face, or what remained of it beyond the vicious layer of burns, and nearly jumped in horror. "Holy crap! Cirno, your face… what the hell happened to you?!"

"Hina," Daiyousei mumbled, standing between Cirno and Marisa and pushing the magician back a step or two as she stood a little too close in the fairy's comfort space. "The girl offered to help us… and then she brutally unleashed fire attacks upon the two of us! Didn't even feel like normal danmaku back there; those spell cards were like torture devices!"

"I'll say," Alice agreed grimly as she looked at the two. "It looks more like she shattered your bones and then dragged your faces through a bonfire than beat you in a danmaku duel! Why would such a calm, docile goddess want to assault you so badly, anyway?"

"No idea," Daiyousei replied before feeling her legs buckle beneath her, causing Marisa to grasp her firmly by the shoulders to keep her standing. "We were just asking for help on finding Reisen to get our friends back, and Hina then started acting really oddly and asked us to 'let her relieve us of our misfortune'. Actually, we probably would have died out there if it hadn't been for Reisen jumping in and shooting her down, at which point we had no choice but to run away."

Marisa raised an eyebrow and turned toward the looming mountain up ahead, trying to contain any possibly unfounded excitement while still handling the sight of the ice fairy's face resembling a lump of charcoal. "Reisen saved you? You mean to say the one behind the incident with the vampire tonight... is just beyond this path?" In response to the fairy's weakly nodding head, she smiled broadly at Alice. "C'mon, then! The underground can wait; let's crack this case and win a little respect around the land by apprehending the rabbit, ze!"

Alice shot her friend a disgusted look and crossed her arms, motioning to Cirno and Daiyousei. "And leave these two to slowly die in the middle of the woods like wounded deer? What kind of heartless monster do you take me—and yourself—for?!" She looked down kindly at the two fairies who were now leaning on the ground and was met by the stares of two sets of utterly grateful eyes.

Marisa sighed impatiently. "Look, at any other situation I'd agree, but we're right on the path of a girl who's executing a plan that will undoubtedly spiral out of control and hurt everyone if unstopped. If we don't continue on quickly, she's going to go someplace else, and we'll lose the opportunity to nab her quick and easy like this!"

"Fine," Alice snapped, a small scowl on her face. "_You_ go to the mountain and bring back Reisen. I'm going to show a little human decency here and help these two get back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to receive treatment from Eirin."

Marisa grumbled to herself, annoyed at the rather condescending look of disdain she was being given from her friend. "Don't treat me like the bad guy here, Alice! Not my fault I wanna help keep Gensokyo as a whole safe instead of just two fairies who'll resurrect again anyway."

"Just go already, then," Alice replied. "It'd be better for you to be an asshole who stopped Reisen from doing anything else bad than for you to just be an asshole, one who let the rabbit slip through her grasp."

"All right, that works for me," Marisa replied a bit too eagerly, ignoring the feeling of disgust Alice seemed to be harboring toward her. "I guess we'll meet up again afterward at the mansion, then?" Without waiting for a definite reply from the irritated girl, she proceeded to run off toward the mountain, eventually swapping ground movement for flight with the broom in her possession after coveting about thirty meters.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that," Alice muttered bitterly to herself as she watched Marisa vanish off into the distance. "Go ahead and play incident solver, Marisa; it's not like there's anyone around who needs our help here." Her gaze returned to the bruised and battered fairies lying on the ground and she scooped them into her arms, Cirno being held in the right side of her embrace and Daiyousei on the left. "Let's go, then," she announced to the children staring up intently at her with wide, unblinking eyes, almost as if she were telling a story around a campfire that the two had fallen into. "We need to get you back to the mansion so the Lunarian doctor can fix you up, okay?"

Daiyousei, still keeping her gaze fixed on Alice, cocked her head slightly. "You mean... you really want to help us?"

Alice rolled her eyes sarcastically as she looked down at the fairies with a small smile. "Nope, I just said that because I want to tie you both to heavy boulders and drop you into the Misty Lake so you drown. Really, why else would I want to let Marisa go on her own if not for rescuing some hapless little fairies?"

Cirno began to cough violently, causing Daiyousei to glance at her friend sympathetically and worriedly before returning her gaze to Alice after the ice fairy calmed down again. "To be honest, though, I think Marisa's right. Even though Cirno and I are in a lot of pain, we _will_ regenerate after a little while, so it'd be better to go after Reisen than help us."

"Yeah, that may be, but I'm not about to say 'screw you' to two fairies who clearly are in a hell of a lot of pain," Alice replied. "Marisa's only matched by Reimu in danmaku talents, so I seriously doubt she's going to have any problem taking Reisen down alone. And anyway, if you two did actually manage to find the rabbit, that means you've tracked down the number one suspect in this incident so far before Reimu, Marisa, Patchouli, Youmu, Eirin, Yukari, or even I could, and that's pretty damn impressive for only two sprites. I'd say the least you deserve is proper medical attention for those godawful wounds of yours."

"Miss Alice," Cirno croaked, slowly turning her charred, blistered face toward the doll-loving youkai, "...thanks."

Alice looked down at the fairy and did her best to smile even while feeling horrified at staring at the injured face. "Like I said, you don't have to thank me for this; I'm just trying to be a Good Samaritan like any normal human, as in any besides Marisa, should be."

"Well, yeah," Cirno whispered, "but... even though I hate relying on others for help when I get into trouble, you're really saving our backs here."

"Exactly," Daiyousei concurred, eagerly nodding her head. "I think what Cirno's trying to say is that if there's ever something our team can do for you in exchange for your act of getting us to safety right now, you should just ask, and we'd be happy to help."

Alice put some effort into keeping her smile intact, not wanting to deflate the innocent vitality and happiness the two fairies were radiating by admitting that she doubted there was anything the group of youngsters could ever do to help her. "Why, thank you. That's a very nice offer!"

Daiyousei pouted scornfully, crossing her arms in a childish way. It was a mannerism usually reserved for Cirno herself and rarely employed by the fairy acting as the voice of reason within the group, but since the ice fairy was somewhat incapacitated beyond speaking simply, it fell upon Daiyousei to use it. "I know you're thinking that there's no way we could ever be useful to you, and you're not the first person to think that, but I promise you that we'll be able to pay you back for this someway, someday!"

_At least these two are vigorously offering to help me instead of anyone else_, Alice concluded to herself as she continued to progress toward the mansion with Cirno and Daiyousei in her arms. _If such innocent, naïve children started declaring their debt and willingness to do anything to pay it back to somebody more manipulative, they could end up carrying out someone's horrifying dirty work with smiles on their faces, blissfully unaware of how terrible their actions truly would be. _One of Cirno's icicle wings accidentally gently brushed against the bare skin of Alice's right arm, and she shuddered to herself. _How chilling._

* * *

><p>Judging from Flandre's eager expression as she stared at the magnificent series of waterfalls marking the territory of the Youkai Mountain tengu, it would be difficult to believe that vampires such as herself were actually vulnerable to water. It was easy to see why she would be captivated by the great natural landmark, for nowhere else in Gensokyo, certainly including the Scarlet Devil Mansion basement, could hundreds upon hundreds of liters of water be seen crashing down from the summit of the mountain to break into a fountain of white foam on the rough, jagged rocks below. After cascading down the cliff behind it and producing a tranquil yet mighty sound, the clean mountain water proceeded to meander its way down toward the ground level. The crashing motion on the rocks generated a pleasant mist that softly dappled on the forehead of Flandre, who stood alongside the base of the falls with a serene smile on her face. If in her place, Remilia might have become horrified at the prospect and would demand a parasol immediately, but her sister was hardly bothered by the light spray and decided to take a moment to behold the half-moonlit scene of beauty before pressing onward.<p>

Although Flandre had never been to the Youkai Mountain before and so had no previous experience to compare this one to, she took notice that she was just about the only living creature in the surrounding area. _For a placed named "Youkai Mountain",_ she thought to herself, _I don't think I've met a single fairy or demon since I've gotten here. _The lack of other beings in the area helped to preserve the peaceful atmosphere of the waterfall, but it was still rather unsettling to her to be isolated with absolutely nobody around for comfort, a feeling in the basement she had been accustomed to but hoped to be freed from once and for all.

"Hello?" Flandre called out, a very slight note of anxiety in her voice. "Is anyone in there?" The only response to her question was the steady, quiet roar of the cascading waterfall, and there was no sign of life behind it at all.

After a few moments without any answer to her question, the young vampire frowned in concern and opened her wings of glowing prisms, flying vertically until she reached the top of the waterfall. There, she hovered in place and began to call again. "Please, aren't there any tengu living here behind the falls? I just need to talk to Aya Sha-whatsername about an important story she should print." Like before, the sound was heard by the same people who would hear a tree falling in the forest.

Eventually, however, there was indeed a response. Flandre heard a very soft groan coming from the top of the waterfall, one that continued to amplify in volume and irritation until it finally resembled a horrified scream. This was sustained for several more seconds before it came back down just as it had risen, melting back into a sigh inaudible beyond the crashing sound of the water. At that moment, Flandre flew up to the ground beside the river cascading down the falls. There, she caught sight of a bundle of wild, unkempt ginger hair strewn all over the grass, out of which two ribboned horns had sprouted. The person this hair belonged to slowly turned over to lie on her back, and she proceeded to release another sigh. Her normally cheery, youthful face was now flushed, her bloodshot eyes lazily half-opened. Flandre easily detected the pungent stench of alcohol about her even several meters away, and as the young vampire reached her side, the girl softly whimpered. She cradled her head in two quivering arms as tears lightly formed along the corners of her eyes.

"Please..." she whispered as softly as possible, barely louder than a wisp of a breeze, "...kill me already." Speaking seemed to pain her greatly, for she then moaned in agony, softly rubbing her temples.

"You want me... to kill you?" Flandre questioned. "Why would you want to die, Miss...?" Her question trailed off as she wait for the girl to say her name, and she watched with wide eyes of childlike wonder for a response.

"Just do it," the girl croaked in reply. "I can't handle this much searing pain... it's agonizing."

Flandre frowned in concern, cocking her head slightly at the suffering girl. "I'm sorry; I guess I don't understand. Why are you in so much pain?"

The girl's migraine pounded mercilessly each time her body's veins pulsed with infernal pain, and her stomach sickeningly lurched back and forth like a pale green ship. If her body nerves had not been completely obscured by her headache, it would have felt as if she were gently rocking on the surface of a stormy sea instead of lying on solid ground. Being expected to answer Flandre's questions in her current state galled a temper already short from the headache, but her head ached with too much pain to allow her to bitterly tell the vampire off. Instead, she whispered one final word before completely collapsing onto the ground, tilting her head on one side and coughing up a stream of acrid, yellow bile that dribbled down her chin: "...hangover."

Flandre's mind immediately leapt toward an idea, for she wanted to help the horned girl overcome the torturous pain she was in. "You mean the horrible pain you get after drinking too many spirits? I think I remember those! Meiling used to tell me about how she sometimes got them after going to parties on her nights off. I can't recall her saying that they were ever this painful, though." As her nostalgic smile faded, a serious look replaced it. "I think I can cure you of your pain, but you need to be absolutely still for me; don't move a muscle. Can you do that?"

The girl had absolutely no reply, and she did not move an inch from where she lay.

"I guess I'll take that as a 'yes', then," Flandre said, a slight note of uncertainty in her voice. Nevertheless she knelt down closely to the girl's head, brushing away the wild strands of hair that had gotten caught up in her face until her face was completely exposed. When she had finished doing this, she extended an open hand, palm-side up, toward the girl's forehead and began to concentrate strenuously in her mind. "I just need to find your mind's eye," she murmured thoughtfully, "and then I can crush it and completely put you out of your misery."

Upon hearing this an absolute wave of panic and terror spread through the girl's body, and it was potent enough to almost blot out her aching head. She was finally able to piece together the clues she had briefly taken note of to figure out that her companion was none other than the terrifying Flandre Scarlet herself: the vampire she had read about in the newspaper as being a childish menace who would happily use her power to destroy anything without minding the possible consequences of her actions. A chill ran down her spine as she watched the vampire enthusiastically describe her way of using such destruction constructively. Being completely helpless and immobilized by a combination of her migraine and fear only made being in Flandre's death-bringing hands worse, for she lacked even a single chance to defend herself fairly. She could only hope the feeling of her brains combusting would pass quickly.

"Ah ha!" Flandre exclaimed as she stared excitedly at what appeared to be a tiny, red, glass marble floating in the palm of her hand. "There's the eye. And now... kyuu!" Her fist closely tightly around the marble-like eye, and when she opened it again, nothing of it remained.

The roaring waterfall was once again the only audible sound for a few seconds as a pale blue mist dissipated from the area, never to haunt Gensokyo in its completely composed form again.

"God help me!" the girl moaned, trying to weakly shield her forehead with her hands. "This is no way for an oni to die!" After a moment of sobbing softly, she finally realized that she was hearing herself cry through ears that were still connected to a functioning mind and that aside from her fingernails lightly digging into her forehead, she felt no pain from her head at all. "How...?" she started, staring widely at the vampire who seemed quite proud of herself. "I thought you said you were going to blow up my mind, Flandre! How in Gensokyo am I still alive?!"

Flandre laughed cheerfully, lightly tousling the oni's ginger hair. "No, silly! I said I was going to put you out of your misery, and that's just what I did! You're feeling much better now, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but..." The oni's sentence faded into silence as she glanced incredulously at Flandre, and she continued by muttering softly to herself. "Probably coulda said in a less suggestive manner, but whatever." She then smiled broadly at the vampire, lifting herself off the ground to stand up. "Anyway, unless I'm seriously delusional and am now dying in a gutter or something, I got rescued from that horrible hangover by _you_! Thanks so much, kid! I owe ya one."

Flandre's cheeks glowed a soft, rosy shade as her eyes fell to the ground from receiving the words of gratitude. "It's nothing," she said shyly. "I've wanted to have an opportunity to use my healing powers on someone for quite some time now, and I'm relieved that it worked out so well on you."

The oni's smile faltered slightly as she scratched her head behind her horns. "Healing powers? Thought you had the supreme mass-destruction ability."

Flandre grinned broadly, almost jumping up and down as a little kid about to reveal a juicy secret would. "Five years ago, I'd say the same thing about myself, but things are totally different now!" The vampire sat on the earthy ground cross-legged and continued beaming at the oni as she began her explanation. "Once I learned how to control my emotions and not blow stuff up on a whim, I did some thinking down in the basement; besides enjoying the occasional visit from Meiling, it was about the only thing I _could_ do to pass the time with the restrictions Remi had placed on me. Being naturally curious about myself, I decided to experiment with my ability of being able to destroy anything and see how many different ways I could make use of the power."

"Oh, I get ya," the oni interrupted, looking thoughtfully at her companion. "I figured I could use my power over density not only on myself to make me giant or thin as a mist, but on populations to move random people where I wanted them to go as well. Yep, Gensokyo's a place that allows for some really out-of-the-box interpretations of general powers."

"That was my thought process," Flandre continued. "'Physical things are easy to destroy,' I thought to myself, 'but what about mental ones?' I dabbled for a little while in getting rid of things in my mind like doubt, fear, boredom, and anger. From there, I started wondering about using my powers in the reverse fashion of their traditional purposes: 'destroying destruction', if you will."

She stood up at once as her story reached a climax. "That's when I discovered there was nothing stopping me from making the world a better place by destroying disorders and sickness! I figured I could get rid of not only things like tumors in the body but also less tangible ailments like joint and organ aches or pains, fatigue, and, yes, hangovers, all by closing my fist around the specific problem's eye. This is Gensokyo, after all, and so I realized I could take advantage of the lack of common sense laws in the land by destroying general concepts instead of only physical, perceivable things: a flu itself instead of the countless individual viruses causing it. By concentrating carefully, I also learned how to destroy things in a unique manner; explosions may be stylish, but if I was going to put my powers to good use, I needed to devise a less extreme method of obliteration: disintegrating the object in a simple 'fading away' manner. Then, after practicing for months to get surgeon-like precision of control over being able to destroy the exact entity I would have in mind, I finally was ready to start healing people in Gensokyo. Seeing as you, my first patient, seem fine and totally cured, I think my idea was a complete success!"

The oni stood back, rubbing the back of her head as she stared at the young vampire in wonder and astonishment. "So the sister of the Scarlet Devil has now decided to use her powers to heal sick people in Gensokyo? That's... incredible." She glanced around at the ground they were standing on just above the spout of the waterfalls before grinning sheepishly. "I'd propose a toast to that, but I guess I lost that magic sake gourd somewhere after I crashed here. Sorry about that!"

"That's okay, Miss..." Flandre began again, looking curiously at the oni. "Sorry, but I don't think you've told me your name yet."

"Suika. Suika Ibuki, one of the Four Devas of the Mountain. Nice to finally meetcha in person instead of just reading about you being depicted as a psycho killer in that old rag Bunbunmaru, Flan! Since you saved me from dying of a hangover, how 'bout you and I be friends?" She smiled cheerfully, extending one strong hand toward the vampire, who gripped it tightly in a firm handshake after a moment of consideration.

Suika inhaled deeply and gazed into the night sky above her, smiling wondrously. "Heh... to be honest, not drinking sake and being sober ain't so bad. Yuugi and the others might be right about me being less of an oni than them, but it feels kinda nice to have a mind clear of alcohol for once." As what she had just said resonated within her mind, a sudden nervous lurch manifested itself from within her stomach, and her eyes widened in worry. "Oh crap!"

"What? Did your hangover come back or something?"

"No, that's not it," Suika answered quickly, wringing her hands and causing the geometric shapes attached by chains to her wrists to bounce up and down. "I almost completely forgot about the rest of the oni I was drinking with at the Former Hell party! My guess is that someone must've poisoned our sake with some really freaking potent fried beans; they're the only things that could shut down my liver like that and put me in that deathly hangover." She chuckled nervously, lightly stroking her forehead. "Man, did that thing hurt like hell! Wanting suicide to get outta it was kinda cowardly of me, but still... I wouldn't give that to my worst enemy!

"Anyway, I can't remember at all how I wandered from down there all the way up to the Youkai Mountain waterfalls, but I'm gonna guess the rest of my buddies did the same kind of thing. Since you said I'm the first patient you've had, they all must be scattered around in the Former Hell suffering from some pretty godawful migraines. 'Specially Yuugi; that girl was putting away the sake like it was going out of style!"

"I'm sorry; that must have been really rough for you." Flandre stared at Suika with a sympathetic gaze until finally smiling diplomatically. "Tell you what; since you've been so friendly toward me like Meiling often has, I'd be happy to go underground and check it out for you after I deliver my story to Aya, all right?"

Even amid her concern for her fellow oni, Suika laughed heartily at that. "You're _giving_ that pesky little crow a news article to print? Maybe you are as much of a lunatic as the media makes you out to be, Flan!" She giggled and then calmed down again, wiping her forehead dry of sweat with her forearm. "Just kidding about that, of course. But anyway, s'gonna be kinda hard to do that at this time of the night when the tengu are such little bitches about keeping their territory free from intruders; it's one of the reasons we oni just said 'To hell with it!' and moved off the mountain a while back. You might wanna come back tomorrow morning if you need to get into their hideout."

Flandre shook her head vigorously in protest, slightly upset by being discouraged from completing her mission. "I can't do that! To be honest, I kind of had to break out of the mansion to come here. Meiling's serving as a diversion to keep my sister from coming after me right now... that is, unless she's already fallen to that monster of a mistress, which could have definitely happened."

Suika fell silent for a second or two, carefully pondering what to say next to the young vampire whose eyes had filled with distress at mentioning her sister. "Might not be none of my beeswax," she finally said, sitting on her haunches to reach Flandre's eye level and looking at her earnestly, "but what's goin' on between you and your sister that would make you bust out of the mansion like a refugee? I know we oni get along with each other a lot better than most people, but still, I dunno if sisters engaging in warfare with each other over a puff pastry or somethin' like that is normal. Maybe I could help ya sort out your problem to pay back the nice favor you just did for me and all."

Flandre stared at the friendly oni for a moment, pondering whether or not to trust her with the details of the story before they became printed for all of Gensokyo to see. Having become acquainted with Remilia, Sakuya, and Patchouli via combat in the past and being unusually disliked by the latter of those three as Flandre had learned in stories they had told her, Suika could have been a conveniently placed trap her sister hired who would capture her and send her back to Remilia. After weighing her options, however, she breathed in deeply. "My story's about the truth concerning Remilia: how she is actually a heartless vampire who locked her sister in the basement under the claim of insanity in order to avoid sharing the mansion with her."

"Beg pardon?" Suika widened her eyes, gently rubbing her ears to ensure they hadn't misheard. "What are you sayin', Flan?"

Flandre fished out the deed she had carefully held onto from her dress and handed it over to Suika, who looked it over thoroughly with disbelief in her eyes. "Now, I might be wrong about this," the vampire said, "but I'm pretty sure that Remilia didn't wish to follow our father's posthumous instructions about giving both of us equal rights to the wealth of our mansion; that's why she spread the idea that I was emotionally unstable in order to confine me to the basement and enjoy the fortune by herself, or so she confessed to Sakuya this evening. She must be trying to find me as we speak to lock me down and therefore shut me up again, to be sure." She shuddered softly to herself, grasping Suika's right wrist tightly between her two hands for support. "That's why I have to get the word out about this plight right away to all of Gensokyo in order to shame Remilia into letting me live like a normal person. If I don't, she's going to permanently seal away or destroy the only bit of evidence that can be used against her and then condemn me to a miserable fate of wasting away in the cold, moldy basement until a wayward gust of wind carries away the dust my body will become." As she touched upon a very real possibility about what the rest of her life could be, her vision became blurred with a gentle layer of tears, and her lip began to quiver. "I... I just want to be able to live normally without being treated like a monster by everyone, especially my sister."

Suika looked at Flandre sheepishly as the girl began to blubber with reddening eyes that stared down at the ground in shame. "Aw, jeez," she muttered to herself, "now I've gone and made her cry." The oni was unsure of how to stop a troubled child from crying, so she settled on what seemed to be the most popular method of comfort: wrapping her arms around the vampire's back below her wings and drawing her into a tight (but not too strong; she didn't want to accidentally crush her into a bloody mess) embrace.

"I-I'm sorry," Flandre mumbled as she returned the oni's hug, feeling enough warmth and consolation from Suika to appease most of her tears. "I've said so many mean and hurtful things about my sister tonight, and now I'm crying like a little child. I shouldn't be acting so immaturely like this; it's just... I can't bear the thought of never being able to go anywhere in this beautiful land or befriend any of its denizens again. I _must_ either get this story published by Aya or tell the Yama about it, not only for my sake, but for Meiling's as well. Whatever Remilia's cruelly subjecting her to right now, I have to make sure she's not enduring it for nothing."

Suika sighed, smilingly gently at Flandre as she patted her on her back. After releasing the vampire from her grip, she reached for the sake gourd attached to her belt that always helped her think when dealing with difficult problems in life, only remembering that she had lost it when her hand connected with nothing but air. After grumbling in minor annoyance, she turned back to her new friend and wiped her hand across the girl's cheeks to dry her tears. "Listen, Flan," she began. "The tengu might not open their doors to you, and you probably won't make it far across the Sanzu River since you're still alive, but there's still one person in Gensokyo who's heard your problem. I may have only just met you personally, but you rescued me from death by sake and seem honestly a whole lot nicer than ninety percent of the girls of Gensokyo. If there's one thing you should know about oni, it's that we help out our friends in any way we can. Now, I might not know anything more about this situation than you do, but I wouldn't put it past that little Scarlet Brat to act so deceptively in something like this from the way she first greeted me. We oni live by the creeds that the old cherry tree killer and his glasses-wearing, bread-in-armpits friend made: 'I cannot tell a lie' and 'Honesty is the best policy'. If she's indeed using some dirty tricks of lying to enslave you like this..." Suika smirked darkly, forming a fist with her right hand and slamming it into her left palm with a resulting boom that made Flandre jump, "...her face's gonna get acquainted with my raw strength tonight!"

Flandre sniffled softly to rid herself of the remaining tears and glanced off to the side, the crystals of her wings glowing brightly as she fell into a deep state of thought. "Would it really be a good idea to do that? My sister may be a selfish, uncaring brat, but I don't think she really deserves being pounded. She probably wouldn't be too happy with you if you did that, Suika."

The oni shrugged. "Eh, a good fight does wonders for clearing the senses; it could set her straight, definitely. You got a point, though, Flan; if we aren't a hundred-percent sure that she's doing this without having a different motive, we could end up pissing off the little chick and making her go after _us_ with a vengeance! Are you completely sure that this is why she's locked you in the basement?"

Flandre wanted desperately to quickly exclaim "Yes!" and let Suika handle the dilemma; every moment she spent in the outside without spreading the word about her plight to Gensokyo was more time for Remilia to find and capture her once more, and she knew in her heart that the vampire would never make any more careless mistakes that could give her another chance to escape from the depths of the hell she'd be placed in. Still, a young, hopeful, innocent voice from within her mind began to make it clear that it had actually not been completely snuffed out from the dark reveal of the evening. "Optimist Flan", or so she imagined the voice ought to be named, chimed in that perhaps Remilia actually did have her sister's best intentions in heart, especially from her heartfelt pleads to let her explain the situation to Flandre. Unlike in many a case of the Scarlet Devil suavely telling a lie, she had seemed honest to her sister when she had insisted on only wishing to help Flandre even after her supposed confession to Sakuya. Flandre couldn't be sure whether or not this was the truth, but she couldn't bring herself to feign complete assurance to the honest oni; the precise truth of what had happened in her perspective was thus told.

"So she was trying to tell you some 'other reason' for why she would lock you away, huh?" Suika stroked her chin with her index finger and thumb in order to look thoughtful even though she had already figured out what to do; even though this was the case, she didn't want Flandre to believe she had irrationally devised a plan after only a few seconds of thought. "I'm personally not buying it, but we should probably hear the other side of the story. Whaddaya say we go the mansion and do a little investigating by asking her about this?"

"I don't want to do that," the young vampire replied, shuddering softly as she vehemently shook her head. "If I had stayed there earlier today and let Remilia tell me her reasons, she would have escorted me back downstairs for sure and kept the deed in her clutches. If I go back now, it's basically asking for that to happen!"

A giggle escaped from the winking oni as she held up the great yellow sphere chained to her wrist. "Not this time, Flandre! You've got an ally now who'll hold the deed and watch your back closely. If that sister of yours tries to take it or attacks you, she's getting a face full of fist!" She looked down at the empty space on her belt and sighed disappointedly. "Sucks that I don't have any sake to give her, though; s'kinda rude to come in uninvited without even a drink to offer. That stuff'd loosen up her tongue a ton, too!"

Flandre glanced sideways, trying not to prematurely return the oni's enthusiasm regardless of how it brewed beneath her surface. "Well... as long as you're really okay with helping me out here. I don't want to keep you from finding your oni friends if they're actually poisoned and in trouble."

Suika patted Flandre on the back and then beckoned to her with one casual motion of her hand as she began approaching the edge of the waterfall. "If you're indeed being hunted down as we speak, you're in greater danger than they are, even if not in terms of sickness. 'Sides, they're oni, not chipmunks! It's gonna take a lot more than some rotten beans to kill 'em! Better for me to help you out now to make sure you stay safe and then go find my buddies than the other way around. But let's go already! This night's not gettin' any younger as we just sit around and talk through it!"

Flandre watched the energetic oni disappear from sight as she flung herself off the ground next to the top of the waterfall, and as she did, the heart within her that had long remained bleak and weary from isolation and neglect in her dark cage finally began to swell with comforting warmth. _She called me a friend_, the vampire reflected in a calm, tranquil state of mind. _Not a young mistress, dirty little secret, annoying and immature sister, or insane murderer. Just... a friend whom she's willing to help in such a time of need. _ Even as she felt like kneeling to the ground and profusely thanking the gods for providing her with such an event of serendipity amid the dark evening, she quickly unfurled her wings and took to the skies to ensure that she would not be left behind. _If guardian angels appear to "good" humans and give them assistance in dire circumstances, I guess it would only be fitting that an oni, a type of demon spirit, would play the same benevolent role to a youkai like me. _

The constant, melodious splash of clear, moonlit water tumbling down the rocky face of Youkai Mountain faded away into a gentle hum before disappearing completely as Flandre flew further away and continued back toward the mansion she was all too familiar with. _Well, simple friend or guardian angel, _Flandre thought as she looked down with a smile at the oni hurrying on the ground a few feet below her, _thank you, Suika._

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]:** Even after about four months, it lives! I would say that I took a hiatus during the summer to carefully reconsider my ideas and brainstorm a new direction in which take the latter chapters of this story after reading the incredibly kind reviews of Felt95, but to be honest, even though that new consideration of how the story should go took place, I never really stopped writing for an extended period of time. It was just… very slow and meticulous writing, crafting a paragraph or two each day. I'm hoping that I can pick up the pace a little to deliver the tenth chapter (which will have the first official, equally matched battle the story has seen), since it's quite unfair to all readers of the story if it takes this long to deliver a new installment. On another note, apart from the last few chapters, I don't plan on making them all as monstrous as 15,000 words like this one. If I can get into a rhythm of writing approximately 8,000 word chapters once every other week, I should be able to finish the story before the century is up!  
>Anyway, even though I have made a (constantly revising) storyboard summarizing the highlights of each chapter to write of this story, I like how my writing still takes its own shape as it comes into existence. In this chapter, for example, I only had the basic ideas of Meiling being assaulted by Remilia, Flandre befriending Suika, Marisa and Alice traveling to Youkai Mountain together, etc. defined at the beginning; the fact that each scene seems to reflect a theme of gratitude between both strong and weak characters came only out of my subconscious. In fact, the Wriggle and Yuuka idea was something completely new that I made on the spot for no reason beyond wanting to giving the firefly a little more action after she has done virtually nothing, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. The interaction between the two was probably my favorite part of this chapter, and it lent itself to quite a bit of convenient exposition I was previously unsure of how to naturally relay to the reader. Maybe I should let my mind wander more and not follow the storyboard so closely.<p>

The next chapter will see the closing of the Remilia versus Flandre arc, and the stage is being set for the _real_ revolution. How will our protagonists survive the upcoming day when a perfect storm of destruction has begun to brew on the horizon? Until next time, readers!


	10. 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM

Koishi Komeiji, younger sister to the Palace of the Earth Spirits mistress Satori Komeiji, had a gut feeling that tonight was going to be absolutely enchanting and timeless, and was she ever right! Of course, every day for the past few weeks had been especially filled with wonder and joy for the little girl after she had embarked on a daring, precarious journey up the mysterious, perilous Youkai Mountain. She had wanted to go to the Moriya Shrine at top in hopes of acquiring the same powers her sister's pet raven was given, but she had gotten something far more incredible from her experience than the goddess Kanako could ever dream of bestowing: friends! Instead of the usual setup of being a human child's "imaginary" friend until he or she grew up and left memories of her to drift on the wind, Koishi had legitimately found two kindred spirits who noticed and appreciated her.

Admittedly, it was a bit hard for Koishi to believe that she had actually done this after being isolated for so long. Her big sister Satori at first tried to explain to her that her experience was likely nothing but a dream, but after a little while of thought, she knew that was nothing but utter nonsense! Determined to find and befriend the two girls, Koishi decided to embark on a quest for knowledge. Being able to slip completely out of anyone's mind and therefore turn invisible had its perks, and she could therefore cheerfully saunter into the huge red mansion, check out its library, read up on the two she had met, and match them to the pictures of two girls she had sketched in her mind with brightly-colored crayons (every shade available in the giant box Satori had given her for her birthday except for burnt sienna, of course). If it can be done and Onee-chan doesn't mind, Koishi always said to herself, it will be done! Her saying was based on something a busily working ant had once told her about how "everything not forbidden is compulsory", and as far as she knew, no ant had ever lied to her in the past.

So, while the grumpy, purple librarian and company were making a ruckus earlier that evening, the young satori with very light-green hair, a yellow long-sleeve shirt, a forest-green skirt, a beloved black sunhat, and a navy-blue third eye whose cord wrapped all around her body had taken a seat in one of the comfy chairs of the library with Hieda no Akyuu's book of Gensokyo people in hand. As the night progressed, it had been fun watching them squabble and panic while performing little comedy routines like stabbing the vampire in her foot, making the older youkai lady sleepy from offering her pastries, and shattering the large window into billions of pieces. Koishi had made sure to applaud earnestly after every act and remove her hat like any polite audience member should, but she still stayed invisible just in case there was somebody who didn't want her reading there. In between watching the library inhabitants goofily mess around, she had carefully studied the two pages about the girls she had come to learn were named Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame. It turned out that both were in the business of youkai extermination, but Koishi was sure that she would still become good friends with the two regardless of their occupation just after getting to know each other. After all, they had seemed quite friendly meeting her at the snowy shrine even when she had shown some of her favorite danmaku techniques, so it was quite clear that they would also enjoy having the young satori as a close companion.

Sadly, Koishi had seen the red-white shrine maiden and the black-white magician busily running about with the other bunch of buffoons, working with them on their silly misadventures. The satori was young, but she had already become enough of a grown-up to realize that these escapades may be amusing to watch, but they are pretty immature to actually play in. Though she wanted to tell Reimu and Marisa to stop playing such childish games as they were, she knew her big sister Satori often told her to respect the feelings of others, and she didn't want to be mean to her new friends and force them to stop doing what they like. So, Koishi thought and thought some more about what to do.

She decided to take a stroll down one of the hallways of the big house; endlessly walking back and forth through a narrow corridor could always amuse her for at least ten minutes. The redhead Chinese youkai she had seen while entering the mansion was also meandering in the hallways, humming a cheery song to herself as she passed by the invisible satori. Koishi was relieved to find that there was at least one member of the house as blithe as herself, and she decided to play with her. She made a strange laughing sound that somewhat resembled a wolf's howl and altered the youkai's subconscious mind, making her think both the satori's sound and footsteps were coming from within the walls. Koishi had heard of many comedians known as ventriloquists who would throw their voices toward different places and get a lot of laughs in return, and so she thought she could do the same to amuse the happy girl. Unfortunately, instead of laughing good-naturedly at the amusing trick like Koishi had hoped, the youkai became quite frightened and nervous.

Koishi was sad and disappointed, but what was there for her to do? She couldn't force the redhead youkai to like her fun games… or could she? That was when she realized there was nothing stopping her from simply altering the inner subconscious minds of her two new friends to cause them to start enjoying the things that she enjoyed. With a cheerful twirl and giggle, she wasted no time even leaving the hallway she was in and mentally located both brains of her companions. Delightedly, she took a look at the long list of priorities in life the two had. As "solving incidents", "exterminating youkai", "getting shrine donations", and "robbing the mansion" were the top collective items on their lists, she threw them deep into their cerebral cellars and added "going to the Palace of the Earth Spirits to play with Koishi" as the new leader. Having devised and set into motion a brilliant, cunning plan that would make the two of them best friends with her on their own will, she was absolutely thrilled. Koishi couldn't wait for Reimu and Marisa to come home with her; she was sure that Satori would be tremendously pleased with her for having made new friends, and making her big sister happy was one of the highest items on her own list of life priorities.

Thus, at that moment, Koishi had finally finished strolling from the mansion back to the cave entrance to Former Hell that existed on Youkai Mountain. Waiting with bated breath and a smile from ear to ear for Reimu and Marisa to come join her, she sat on the rocky ground and relaxed under the sort of awning that was formed by the top of the cave. As it turned out, this was the location of the exact threshold between the outside and underground worlds: a fitting location at which to meet up with her new friends. Excitement and anticipation was all but bubbling out of her bloodstream as her youthful eyes continuously scanned the dark night that lay before her for her desired targets.

* * *

><p>Although her wound had dripped enough blood to form a filthy, sanguine pool around her feet, Reisen felt as though the severe pain had ebbed away into a dull, numbing sensation over the past two hours. She had been initially reluctant to give into Nue's every wish and make use of the black handkerchief she had been given, but wrapping it tightly around her leg managed to stop the gusher of blood from spilling any more of its precious red gold. Even after she had dodged the threat of death by blood loss, however, Reisen still felt adrenaline pumping all throughout her body in response to the danger she was in by being incapacitated on Youkai Mountain. If fate decided to play another cruel trick on its unfortunate moon rabbit, she realized, it would be off to the Sanzu River with her.<p>

As any nature show would verify, wounded rabbits in the middle of a territory teeming with predators are easy pickings, and Reisen knew that she, despite being a bunny _girl_, would be no exception in the jaws of a hungry youkai. Since her pain had finally diminished to a tolerable ache, she slowly emerged from the thick, green underbrush lining the bottom half of Youkai Mountain as she attempted to find any way to escape the wilderness. Feeling a wet, slippery sensation on her knees as she crawled toward any sort of clearing she could find, she glanced downward to find that she had spread her pool of blood into a thin trail that followed behind her.

"Perfect," she groaned exasperatedly, roughly rubbing her hands on her knees, caked with dirt and blood, in an attempt to get them clean. Failing that, she grumbled to herself and pressed onward.

A typical nocturne of hooting and laughing youkai sounded in the distance. The half-full moon in the otherwise pitch-black sky cast a gentle glow onto the mountain, but it was hardly enough light to help Reisen avoid senselessly wandering about on the forest floor. Seeing and getting nicked by branches and brambles for what felt like an eternity, she wondered if she had actually been crawling in circles the entire time. She observed the multiple cuts she had incurred but felt little pain toward on her arms and chest and smirked dryly. "Well, guess I don't even have my sex appeal anymore." It didn't make her feel any less lonely out in the middle of the mountain or give her the strength to get to her feet, but she did feel a twinge of happiness from making the quip.

Reisen couldn't have been sure when she had actually first begun to hear rushing water; her ability to manipulate waves (in this case, sound waves) meant that she would frequently limit or increase her hearing without even realizing it. At any rate, she now realized that the noise of the hungry youkai in the distance was completely replaced by a gentle, steady gurgling sound of water. Unlike with the roaring waterfalls Flandre Scarlet had taken notice of, the water Reisen now heard was quite relaxed and in no hurry to flow toward its ultimate destination. If thoughts about the inevitable perils she would face today were not circling her mind as they were now, the soothing tones she heard now would have calmed her restless mind completely. As it was, however, she ignored the tempting prospect of allowing the sound to soothe her and instead fought through the last few thorny bushes in search of the tranquil tone's source.

At last, Reisen shoved a bundle of barbed branches to the side and was met by an expansive opening beyond, the melodious sound of water now flowing quite freely into her rabbit ears. This, she realized with a start, was the pure, utterly natural Untrodden Valley she had heard much about but had never before experienced firsthand. She gazed with admiration and wonder from her crawling position on the very edge of the area, beholding a gorgeous expanse of land only three humans had ever walked upon before. The grassy bank she lay on gently sloped downward and produced longer and longer green blades until the point at which it kissed the crystal clear, softly rippling water.

As it turned out, this was a river preserved by nature from pollution, one that was allowed to gurgle as freely as it wished without any fear of being corrupted and killed. Both directions that spanned the rabbit's vision, one sloping up to point toward the mountain summit and another meandering down to return to sea level, completely contained the pure ribbon snaking toward its horizons. Although it only spanned about fifteen meters in width, the river was home to an abundance of cattails its waters gently pushed back and forth on their way down the mountain. It seemed as if the brown tips of the plants were constantly bobbing towards what existed on the far side of the river: the sturdy face of a tall, rocky cliff rising up over the valley like a protective guardian. The moonlight reflected off the bottom of the cliff where some of the river water had splashed up, illuminating the area with a soft sheen.

"If I didn't have any lifelong commitments to Eientei," Reisen said out loud to herself in admiration, "this is where I'd spend the rest of my life living, no contest." Every fiber of her being wanted to run straight into the river and let its cool, clean waters wash away her persistent troubles, but she held herself back to make sure the great wound on her leg would not be exposed to bacteria and get infected. Instead, she leaned over the side of the riverbank, scooped some water into her cupped hands, and splashed the refreshing liquid onto her weary face.

After the water brought her into a more alert state of mind, Reisen realized with dismay that she had not slept in almost forty-eight hours. Preparing for the day of revolution in Gensokyo, even though she had wanted nothing to do with it, had run her ragged, and she wasn't quite sure how much longer she could last before she would inevitably collapse in exhaustion. The peaceful riverbank devoid of hostile creatures began to call out to her as a very alluring spot to take a nap, and the more she weighed her options about what to do next, the less she was able to resist it.

_Whatever_, she at last decided in her thoughts. _If they wanna force me into going along with their terrible plans, they'd better come over here and drag my sleeping body out themselves_. Having victoriously triumphed over her scheming superiors in her mind, Reisen picked a flat, dry section of the bank on which to begin her much-needed siesta. She smoothed her suit and skirt out with her hands as she lay on the ground, slowly shut her eyes, and gently let the thoughts circulating through her mind at high speed become sedentary. At last, she could relax and be lulled off to sleep by the sweet sound of the river beside her.

Reisen's mind was just about to completely lose consciousness when the sound of the soothing river was replaced by a loud, high-pitched, feminine shriek in her ear. It carried her away from the depths of sleep, but she refused to open her eyes and instead groaned in annoyance. _Whoever you are who made that sound, kindly shut up and go away, please._

"Gah, a rabbit?! How could you have gotten here?"

"I walked in," Reisen replied matter-of-factly without even opening her eyes to see whose company she was in. "Well, more like crawled in. Not that it really makes a whole lot of difference now that I'm here, anyway."

"It makes a huge difference!" the rabbit's friendly new companion shouted incredulously.

"You don't say," Reisen replied dryly, smiling amusedly to herself.

"I _do_ say!" The new girl seemed to be getting childishly worked up about Reisen's calm, dismissive attitude, and this only served to entertain the rabbit further. "Momiji ordered the tengu guards to patrol both exits of this valley. The whole mountain is under lockdown protocol after she spotted Hina and this unidentified other girl making trouble! We kappa originally picked the Untrodden Valley as a place to make our home just because it _can't _get infiltrated and invaded easily, especially when we've got sentries posted all over. You… you've gotta be lying!"

"Or, maybe I just crawled through the prickly bushes growing on the side of the valley? That could possibly explain why my clothes are covered in scratches and burrs." Reisen's closed-eye grin spread further. Egging on a childish spirit as she was doing now wasn't typical of the rabbit's normally polite behavior, but built-up experience being on the receiving end of Tewi's pranks combined with her tiredness made her disregard her diplomacy and instead happily tease the kappa. If the day's plot meant that this would be the last time she could ever have fun, she wanted to make the absolute most of it. "Then again, perhaps it's just that these so-called 'guards' of yours can't do jack."

That set the kappa over the edge into a tantrum. Reisen continued to nonchalantly keep her eyes closed as she laughed and listened to a series of frustrated cries. "_You take that back! _The tengu sentinel force of Youkai Mountain is the best of the best! They'd stand up to and take on a DRAGON if one came and attacked us! They're much better than your awful group of... of... erm..." Her tirade quickly slowed down to a halt as she struggled to finish her sentence.

"My group of...?"

"...Of _dumb bunnies _living in the bamboo forest!" With a triumphant smirk and laugh at having made the perfect comeback, the kappa began to make a loud, repeated crunching sound. Reisen wasn't sure since she still refused to open her eyes, but she guessed that it was the noise of biting into a crisp, fresh valley cucumber. "I've heard a lot about your Inabas who just go around and play pranks all day like lazy slackers. If the oni ever decide to come out of the underground again and conquer your forest... Well, that brainiac physician and her princess mistress might put up a nice fight, but Eientei would still be sunk!

"Anyway, call 'em bad if you'd like," the kappa continued in a calmer tone, "but I could just scream and get the tengu guards to come right here. Throw an intruder like you twice the distance to the _moon_, they would!" She attempted to sound threatening as she continued to rebuke Reisen, but her high-pitched voice that cracked over saying "moon" was, in the rabbit's opinion, far too cute and childish to be intimidating. "Still, I won't. Even though you're being really mean to me, Nitori Kawashiro is a friend to all creatures of every species, even rabbits! I can help you get back to the base of the mountain without you getting bothered by anyone wearing a tokin hat, no problem!"

Reisen smiled in continued mischief, but her mouth also reflected a twinge of melancholy as she remembered why she was on Youkai Mountain in the first place. "Thanks for the offer, but I've got to stay here for now. Anyway, I don't mean to be rude, but it's been an excruciatingly long day and I'm very tired, so if you'd just let me—"

"No way! You don't see me curling up under of your bamboo stalks and saying 'Okay, it's time to hit the sack!' Besides, this is the testing site for lots of our kappa inventions, and you don't wanna stick around to see those in action unless you're interested in being grilled to a crisp!"

_Damn you, fate, I just wanted to take a nap. What did I ever do to you?_ The moon rabbit slowly turned onto her back and opened her eyes. Not two feet away from her face and standing right over her was a young girl with a youthfully upset pout upon her mouth. Reisen, noticing a jacket, knee-length skirt with many pockets on it, rubber boots, and short hair pulled into pigtails of all the same color on the girl, guessed that her favorite color was light blue. Besides the majority of blue parts to her outfit, she also wore an oversized, green backpack and a green cap featuring a spirit-like image on its front that had been pushed off-center. In one hand she held a fresh, green, partially bitten cucumber; in the other, a newly picked cattail from the river. "Look, Kappa—"

"Nitori!" she corrected Reisen in a shrill, childish tone of indignity. She, of course, had every right to take umbrage, for one of the most serious ways to offend a youthful spirit such as herself would be to get her name wrong.

"…Nitori. Even though this looks like a really nice spot to live in, I'd be happy to get out of your hair and get back to the main part of Gensokyo. Only problem, this hostile girl I met earlier tonight gave me a massive gash on my leg. It's not like I can just walk down the mountain now, and I'm not to be expected at home for several more hours, anyway."

Nitori diverted her gaze toward the black handkerchief-wrapped leg with curiosity, instinctively bringing a hand toward the cloth. "Mind if I take a look?" she asked hopefully. Since Reisen shrugged indifferently in response, Nitori grinned cheerfully and gently worked her fingers into the tight knot binding fabric to flesh. Although it seemed strange for her to so quickly gain enthusiastic interest about Reisen's injury especially after the two had butted heads, she was still a kappa engineer; her job was to solve practical problems, and a stabbing of the leg definitely fell within that category. Proudly flexing her engineering muscle in everyday situations was also one of Nitori's favorite activities, and it instantly made her forget about being angry.

As she undid the knot and exposed what lay below the black fabric, her enthusiastic smile contorted into a combination of horror, disgust, and pity at the revelation that met her. Even amid those, however, her eyes continued to sparkle with slightly twisted fascination as her mouth gaped open. "My god..." she murmured under her breath in awe. The wound on Reisen's thigh, or rather the line of three equally horrifying ones caused by each prong of the offending trident, was unrivaled by anything Nitori had ever seen before in depth and wideness. Spanning the entire length of the thigh, each unnatural entrance to the body's interior was about a centimeter wide. _If her leg was the surface of the Earth,_ she thought to herself, _we've definitely found the Grand Canyon_. The blood seemed to have realized its own scarcity and clotted, but it still remained along the sides of the gash and gave the area a sharp, cruel tinge of red. Although nothing had popped up yet, Nitori was sure that soon enough the area would add a sickly yellow shade to the mix in the form of an infection.

After breaking her gaze from the impressive wound, Nitori glowered at Reisen straight in the eye, either unaware or unbothered by the possible dangers of doing this to the rabbit of madness. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" she spat, clenching two shaking fists.

"With me?" Reisen glanced downward at her wound irritably. "My sincerest apologies for crossing the path of a youkai bent on sadistically skewering me for the fun of it."

"That's not what I mean, you foolish rabbit!" Nitori, despite having acted childishly before, now assumed the role of a concerned parent as she folded her arms and stared down disapprovingly at Reisen. "Why on Earth would you not tell me that you've gotten such a devastating blow?! I might barely know you, but still, it's my duty as a kappa to help any injured people I come across."

"Kappa, lambda, xi, omicron, whatever," Reisen replied coldly. "I don't care that my leg has a huge slash in it. If anything, it's a blessing that would rescue me from following through with today's events."

Nitori shook her head with condescending pity, cradling it in her hands. "I can't tell if you're reckless, suicidal, masochistic, or just an idiot."

"Maybe all of the above?"

After taking a quick nibble on the cucumber in her hand and scooping up a palmful of river water that she happily splashed onto her face, Nitori smiled diplomatically at the rabbit below her. "Well, I guess I can blame your cold greeting and irresponsibility of handling your wound on a state of delirium from losing all that blood, all right?" She offered a hand to Reisen, who stared intently at it as it came into her field of vision. "C'mon; let's get you back to Eientei and have Eirin fix up your wound before it gets any worse!"

At the mention of going back to her home and seeing her mistress, Reisen's crimson eyes widened in terror toward the edges of their sockets. "N-no! Chase me off the mountain, throw me to the wolf tengu, or even drown me in the river like a traditional kappa would if you'd like! Whatever you do, don't make me see Eirin again!" Even under Nitori's puzzled glance, she attempted in vain to frantically scurry backward and escape up the riverbank despite clearly still having a terribly wounded leg.

"Wait up!" Nitori shouted, kicking up small splashes of water from her boots as she walked at a not-so-quick pace upstream to stay by Reisen's side. "What's so bad about getting healed by Eirin? I hear she can get a little cold and unfriendly sometimes, but I can't think of a better doctor in Gensokyo!"

"Doesn't matter," Reisen muttered, half to herself and half to Nitori. "If Eirin gets me, this whole incident is going to go to hell." She continued to crawl on her hands and knees through the grassy riverbank, slowly decelerating as the pain began to once again shoot through her body and bring her movements to a standstill.

Nitori stopped as she strode toward the vainly escaping rabbit, and she firmly placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Look," she said slowly and deliberately, forming steady eye contact as Reisen craned her head sideways to stare with frightened eyes, "you're in no condition to be running away from help. Whatever problem you have with Eirin, you'd better just set it aside while you focus on taking care of your physical body."

"I'd say it's pretty damn obvious what her problem is," a rough, wild, carefree voice shouted in a loud echo that brazenly ricocheted off the valley walls. "She's afraid of getting punished for starting the big, bad incident that's rockin' Gensokyo tonight!"

Both Reisen and Nitori quickly turned their heads toward the downstream direction of the river, and it only took a few seconds before they recognized the familiar shape of a young witch zipping through the air toward them about ten feet above the water on a broomstick, her silhouette dappled with silver moonlight. At that moment as the blonde witch closed in on the two, both of their pairs of pupils dilated: Nitori's in delight and pleasant surprise, and Reisen's in morbid fear and dread.

"Marisa!" Nitori called in a greeting, grinning shyly. "Fancy seeing you here at three in the morning!"

Marisa, hovering over the grassy riverbank, slowly descended vertically from her position until her feet touched the ground again. Touching back on the earth, she hopped off her broomstick and snatched it in her grasp as a once-again ordinary cleaning tool. "Well," she said, "a little fairy—or, should I say, _two _little fairies—told me that Reisen was somewhere on the Youkai Mountain tonight, and it looks like she wasn't lying at all!" She turned to the rabbit whose shoulder was still in Nitori's grasp and smiled mildly in triumph. "Sorry, but it looks like this whole incident of yours is gonna crumble faster than a nice, flaky bakery muffin!"

Nitori carefully straightened her cap and peered up at Marisa curiously with her wide, childlike eyes. "What's been happening tonight, Marisa? You and Reisen both mentioned something about an incident taking place."

"You haven't heard already? I'da thought you'd be one of the first to find out after your tengu neighbor printed it up in the papers!"

Nitori shrugged, smiling with both innocence and pride. "I was just pulling an all-nighter in the kappa testing facility in the river to put the finishing touches on the latest line of products: missile launchers, flamethrowers, lasers, death rays, toasters; the usual stuff. Then, lo and behold, when I came back up to the surface to take a quick break, I found this Eientei rabbit sleeping on the riverbank!"

Marisa laughed good-naturedly as she glanced back at the shivering Reisen, but her golden eyes appeared dull and grim instead of amused. "Well, lemme tell ya, it's a funny story! See, Reisen here sent the Scarlet Devil a letter talking about how the weaker youkai in the land were gonna plot a 'revolution' of some sort and start taking control of Gensokyo, and that their first act would be murdering Remi tonight. Needless to say, the apparent timespan it was gonna happen in came and went, and the vampire's still alive... or undead, I guess you'd call her. However... well..." She paused, and her grin began to wistfully match her eyes. "Yukari's shikigami got manipulated into being forced to try to kill her. She didn't go through with it, though, and sacrificed herself right in front of her little kitty familiar instead. So, anyway," she said, her eyes transforming into glaring daggers as she turned to the rabbit, "from what I hear, everybody is _pre~tty_ pissed about you've done tonight, you filthy moon-crawler!"

Reisen lowered her head with shame and dropped her vision to the ground, remorse for the biting words eclipsing her fear and panic of being taken back to Eirin. Even as Nitori turned around to face her with disbelief in her eyes, the rabbit didn't dare to lift her gaze. "_This _little one caused the death of the border youkai's kitsune?! That can't be right!"

Reisen flailed about in the kappa's grasp for a few moments in another attempt to escape before laying limp, her strength of resistance dropping rapidly. "No... it's true. I forced Yukari to give a mandatory order to Ran about killing Remilia tonight." After a moment's pause, a very small, almost unnoticeable look of inspiration flashed over Reisen's eyes. Quickly, a sly smile crossed her lips and dashed her sincere look of shame. "Not only that," she added, "but I also made Hina go insane and attempt to kill Cirno and Daiyousei. When daybreak comes and this revolution kicks into motion, _I'll_ be the one sitting in the director's chair." Sensing a rising hostility radiating from Marisa out of the corner of her, Reisen continued on with a renewed sense of determination in her voice. "By the end of today, you're going to drop from being one of the best incident solvers around, Marisa. If we don't decide to off you, you'll be little more than a servant waiting hand and foot on those small youkai you always push around and bully!"

Nitori, rather intimidated by this claim, let go of her shoulder and began to slowly back away from the rabbit toward the riverbank. Marisa, however, started grinning confidently as she pulled out her mini-Hakkero from an apron pocket and brandished it in Reisen's direction. "Sorry, but Alice already booked me for that role an hour ago, ze!"

"If that's how it must be, then so be it." Reisen whipped her right arm out with blinding speed toward the retreating kappa, smacking the left side of her head with brute force. Nitori cried out in sudden shock, and her body came crashing down toward the ground. A look of horror crossed her face as the green cap she was wearing fluttered to the ground several feet away and a small, shallow, glass dish of water that had been hidden underneath it dripped its contents to the earth. As soon as the water dish fell empty, her entire body became limp on the ground, her eyes glancing around wildly in a look of helplessness and frustration.

Marisa growled as her grip on the weapon tightened, its wooden body beginning to glow with increasing luminosity. "Exploiting a kappa's natural weakness, Reisen? I thought you had more class than that."

Reisen, in turn, stared intently at Marisa with eyes of shimmering, glowing red, trapping the witch in locked eye contact. Within moments, in the witch's vision, the hard, defined lines of the landscape around her began to grow fuzzy and blurry. The top of the surrounding cliff of the valley took the appearance of a sine wave bouncing nauseatingly up and down, the natural colors of the grassy riverbank and river became bizarre shades of red and violet, and unearthly shadows of all shapes and sizes appeared to dance among the thick underbrush. The calming, steady sound of the water in the river transitioned into an erratic, high-pitched buzzing sound akin to a nest of angry hornets.

"Wh-what's going on?!" Marisa blinked a few times in surprise and took a few steps back, but the moonlight, now harsh and intense instead of gentle, still illuminated her as she became trapped within the illusion. She attempted to aim the mini-Hakkero toward Reisen, but she found with alarm that the rabbit's body had begun to completely fade away into black with the exception of her piercing red eyes.

Marisa blinked, and dozens of Reisens popped up all over her vision. Each of the rabbit images stood facing a different directions but still managed to train her pair of scarlet orbs in Marisa's direction; even the one standing upstream with her back to the witch seemed to have her head on backwards in order to stare behind her. As Marisa frantically scanned the entire landscape around her in an attempt to look away, more and more Reisens began to appear before her eyes: in the river, on top of the cliff, in the bushes, even in the distance near the summit of the mountain. None wore an expression of either a smile or frown, but the eyes that resembled sniper laser sight dots were certainly off-putting enough.

"Stop this, Reisen! Stop it!" Marisa jammed her eyelids shut, but that did little to relieve her of the maddening images dancing about before her eyes. Even in the darkness that her closed eyes granted her, the sight of dozens of lustrous, crimson eyes stalked and invaded her vision. It didn't matter where she pointed her eyes or how she attempted to conceal them; trying to escape Reisen's glare was utterly futile, and she began to believe that she would never stop seeing red spheres as long as she lived. "P-please... stop it..." She opened her eyes wide in an attempt to search for and attack the rabbit behind the illusion, but as she did, the countless copies of Reisen began to morph into all different denizens of Gensokyo. Reimu, Alice, Patchouli, Flandre, Sakuya, Yuuka, Youmu, Yukari... It seemed as if everyone Marisa had ever met excluding Nitori and Reisen herself was standing in the Untrodden Valley, and all were still focusing red eyes directly at her.

"Well?" Alice, standing on top of the cliff, called down to her in Reisen's voice. "Does your mind still have a shred of sanity left, or has it been completely blown to smithereens?"

"You seem to be handling it better than most so far," Patchouli remarked from her position upstream. "Most either have a breakdown or attempt to claw out their eyes when this happens to them. But then again, it's probably only a matter of time before you start doing that too!"

"Not that it'll do you any good," Cirno added as she stood next to the librarian. "Even if you go blind by ripping out your eyeballs, the lovely, shining, red eyes all around you will be burned into your occipital lobe. They'll be there until you die!"

Marisa cradled her head in her arms and groaned helplessly, but her hands soon began to shift into rabbit ears that flopped about from her wrists. "I... don't feel so good."

Flandre jumped up and down excitedly from her spot right next to Marisa, and the rainbow crystals hanging from her wings morphed into even more red eyes as she did so. "You're close to breaking! You're close to breaking! C'mon, Mari, get rid of that dumb, lousy sanity and embrace your inner lunatic!" The blonde vampire threw her mob cap high into the scarlet night sky with the shrieking laugh of a madwoman. As she did so, her body quickly melted into a great pool of crimson blood before reforming in the shape of her older sister. She caught the hat on her head and smirked deviously, her glowing eyes never leaving their target. "Won't be long now."

The incessant buzzing of the river, the strange dimensions and colors of the valley, and the cursed red eyes from which she could not escape were beginning to truly drag Marisa toward the edge of insanity, and she fought as hard as she could to avoid letting out a tremendous cry building up inside of her. She had the feeling that if she began screaming at that moment, she would continue doing it nonstop for the rest of her life, right into joining Flandre in the locked basement. Instead, she curled herself up into a fetal position, ignored the Sakuya to her left who was throwing sharp daggers and sharper words nonstop at her, and attempted to will away the terrible illusions as best she could. The fact that the illusions caused no physical harm with their attacks was more horrible for the hapless girl than if they had actually given her pain; an injury would have at least distracted her mind from the inescapable, horrific images her mind was pressed with. As much as she usually hated to admit it, tears began to well up in her eyes at the miserable prospect of having to experience this for the rest of her life if she did indeed go insane, and she struggle greatly to remain calm when that thought occurred to her.

All the while Marisa had been subjected to the merciless waves of lunacy coming from Reisen's eyes, Nitori had been slowly inching toward Marisa and the riverbank, hoping to refill her water dish and regain her strength while rescuing her friend out of whatever nightmare she had been placed in. She couldn't be sure what exactly Marisa was being subjected to, but by the panicked gasps and looks of absolute terror in the witch's constantly shifting eyes, it was nothing a human being ought to experience without going insane. The kappa wished desperately that she could attack Reisen and get her to stop what she was doing, but she couldn't summon the strength in her numb body to stand in the face of the lunacy waves herself in order to do so. Instead, as she finally reached Marisa, she raised herself off the ground with as much strength as she could muster and placed a hand on the witch's shoulder. Feeling her friends warm, human skin under her fingers, Nitori patted her comfortingly and whispered calming, reassuring words in her ear.

However, Marisa's mind, while feeling what she perceived as razor-sharp claws painlessly digging into the flesh on her shoulder, gradually started sensing a second, very different sensation. As she was mercilessly mocked by a red-eyed Tewi for letting herself get so caught in the madness trap, she became aware of a soft, cold, wispy sensation touching and caressing her left shoulder. She couldn't avert her gaze from the countless red-eyed glares in every direction, but from the touch alone, she suddenly felt a sense of warm, familiar, nostalgic comfort radiating over her entire body. Her mind lightly drifted backward in time to a period of her life not too chronologically different from the present, but existing in a radically different Gensokyo from the one of today.

_"There, there, Marisa. There's no need for you to cry."_

That couldn't be right. The age when Marisa had bright red hair and wore a purple outfit was long gone, so there was no way her beloved mentor of magic had returned. No matter how greatly she desired at the moment to feel tightly embraced by the loving arms of the evil spirit, to bury her face in her master's blue dress and therefore escape the frightening illusions forever, or to happily frolic around her ghostly tail, she knew she could never indulge in her childhood fun again. Lady Mima was long gone by now, and Marisa had come to accept that she would not see her mistress again. And yet...

_"Did you think I would just abandon the apprentice I hold so close to my heart? I've always been utterly proud of you since the day you spectacularly fought against the shrine maiden to defend me, Marisa."_

Marisa broke the spellbinding grasp the eyes in front had on her, and she whipped her head backward to see who had said that in such a rich, yet wispy tone of voice. As she identified the woman with a shock, it was as if the buzzing sound faded into muted background noise and the countless bright, red eyes surrounding her became dull and unobtrusive. There, floating about four feet off the ground and wrapping a ghostly tail lovingly around Marisa's shoulder, was a very tall woman with long, straight, flowing, jade hair and sharp, clever eyes of the same color. A long, blue dress with a yellow bow-tie covered her middle and separated her human-like skin on top from her pale tail below, and a conical, blue wizard hat with a yellow sun design adorned the crown of her head. Unlike the hostile, red-eyed apparitions surrounding the area, she smiled warmly and genuinely, opening her arms welcomingly to the witch.

_"It's been a while, hasn't it? You've certainly blossomed into a lovely young lady."_

At that moment Marisa felt as if she still would cry; not from going insane, but from the joy of being reunited with her beloved mistress for the first time in about a decade. "L-lady Mima?! How can this be?" From her fetal position on the ground, she rolled over onto her back, ignoring the cold dirt that was sprinkling onto her dress and instead focusing on feeling the ghostly tail caught between her hands. Indeed, it felt identical to how the young girl had perceived it whenever she had playfully tackled her mentor in a hug: soft and cool, yet quite existent and pleasant to the touch.

_"Well, that's a rather strange way of greeting your old mentor after so many years without contact," _Mima said with an amused chuckle. She playfully flicked her tail back and forth between Marisa's fingers, causing the girl to yelp softly in surprise and delight as memories of similar events in the past ran through her mind. _"Some things never change, huh?"_

AsMarisa began to regain her rational thought processing again, however, she dropped her hands from the tail and shook her head to relieve herself of the dizziness brought on by the red eyes of madness. Mima seemed genuinely surprised as Marisa coldly folded her arms and stared up at her. "Look, this is impossible, ze! You can't just pop up out of nowhere at three in the morning after having been gone for so long!" She frowned with increasing skepticism at the evil spirit. "You've gotta be another illusion from Reisen's lunacy wave: one based off my nostalgia without those awful red eyes to try to lure me into completely dropping my guard, right? Well, it's not going to happen!"

"Look who's a smarty-pants now!" an illusionary Aya exclaimed with a sharp, sarcastic laugh. "Too bad you're not gonna get a chance to put those brains cells to use when you'll spend the rest of your life watching terrifying illusions!" She waved her orange maple leaf fan in the witch's direction and generated a gale-force gust of wind that, while nonexistent in reality and therefore unable to cause physical harm, was accompanied by a horrifically loud sound resembling nails scratching on a chalkboard.

Acting quickly, Mima draped her arms around Marisa's body and enveloped her in a tight, loving embrace, gently shielding the girl's vulnerable ears with her torso. The wind gust came and went, but Marisa was hardly bothered by it after being completely shielded by the evil spirit's protective hold. After she was sure that there were no more immediate hazards toward the witch's mental health, she slowly placed her back on the ground and watched curiously from above to see how she would react. _"There, does that convince you that I'm not in cahoots with these horrid illusions?"_

Marisa looked to the side to avoid glancing at Mima, but as she was met with multiple sets of red eyes when she did so, her vision reluctantly returned to focusing on the evil spirit. "Not really, but I'm grateful for that nonetheless. Still, how could you have seen that illusionary attack only existing in my mind if you're not an illusion yourself, and why would you choose to reveal yourself right now when all this is happening?"

"Ooh, she's got you now!" A new voice louder and more daunting than any of those of the other illusions began to rise up, and both Marisa and Mima turned around to see Reimu with a cruel smirk singing mockingly from her position a few feet away. "Better leave now so that the rest of us can finish the job of putting her in a mental institution, Mima! After all, nobody else seems to want to help her, so why should you?"

Mima glared with a dark scowl at the smirking shrine maiden before turning back to Marisa with a patient smile. _"It's good to know that you're as inquisitive as usual and haven't become gullible, but I assure you that I'm not an illusion. I suppose you _could _call me something similar to an apparition, though; when I said about eight years ago that I would be leaving Gensokyo for good, I began to realize that I couldn't bear to abandon the young, ambitious magician I had taken under my wing. So I chose not to."_

"You hear that?" Reimu sneered nastily, stepping toward the reunited master and apprentice. "Everybody _looooves_ Marisa, even her mentor! But wait; who's going to love you when your brain becomes mush? I'm pretty sure Alice won't keep obsessing over you as soon as she realizes all you can do anymore is sit in a straitjacket 24 hours a day, crying and screaming like a tiny infant. And you think Patchouli's gonna grudgingly admire you when you won't be able to steal candy from a baby, much less books from her? As if!"

Marisa, eyes still shimmering upon the cusp of tears, tried to forcefully shove away the shrine maiden, but her hands went right through the smirking girl's body without moving her an inch. Seeing the futility of this, she sniffled lightly and turned her back on Reimu. "What are you saying, Mima?"

_"I wanted to be close to you at all times in case you ever needed help or support from your old mistress, so—and I sincerely hope you won't get angry at me for this—I decided to enter hibernation within the deepest, innermost reaches of your subconscious mind. When you fought the younger Komeiji sister a few weeks ago, her abilities roused me from my sleep and allowed me to watch over you alertly." _She bowed her head slightly in minor humility. _"I'm sorry I didn't ask your permission to do it, but I thought it would be nice to surprise you in your time of need by revealing that I've never actually left your side."_

Marisa put a hand to her mouth, and her ribcage could barely contain its racing heart as the idea that Mima had never truly left Gensokyo began to sink into her mind. It was hardly an easy task to disregard the scar of a heartbreak after being told she would never again see the one closest to her, but her overwhelmed mind felt close to shutting down as it faced such a whiplash after merciless mental torture. "M-my subconscious mind?! I... I don't what to think of that."

"Think about how much of a lie it is," Reimu helpfully suggested, dancing and circling all around the black and white witch. "That's just an illusion; the real Mima is long gone, almost certainly dead! My counterpart of reality probably did the permanent exorcism herself just to spite you. Yup, I can just imagine her body being desecrated into hundreds of tiny, pathetic pieces under the Ying-Yang orb. She'd wail pathetically and pitiably just for the agony of the process demolishing her mind to cease, but Reimu would take that as a cue to increase the pain and torture. It'd be a day when the shrine maiden would actually eat well; she'd have a nice, hardy serving of spirit soup resting in her belly." She giggled wickedly, wrapping her arms around Marisa's chest from the back and drawing up the girl in a tight embrace that mocked such a usually loving gesture. "Poor, poor Marisa. Not even your old, beloved mistress could stand you enough to stick around! And now, when you need help the most to keep from going cuckoo, your little turtle friend is just sprawled out behind your back instead of trying to stop me! Truly, there's no hope for you anymore, is there?"

Mima, who had up to this point been ignoring the illusion to the best of her ability, flashed brilliant, emerald eyes that put the countless sets of scarlet ones to shame toward Reimu; it seemed a wonder that she did not spontaneously combust while being the target of such a glare. _"I'm not entirely sure what you are," _she began slowly while menacingly advancing toward her, _"but you're sure as hell not the little shrine maiden I used to love to tease and torment. I guess this is what they mean when they mention disgusting, depraved, sociopathic, incorrigible monsters. If you make another syllable about anything regarding Marisa, I promise it'll be the last one that'll ever come out of your mouth."_

"Monster?" Reimu laughed darkly. "Why would you call me that? I'm just the product of Marisa's raw thoughts manifesting themselves. Everything I've said is just something she's thought of at some point. Really, you should be thanking me and calling me a true friend; I'll stick with her through thick and through thin and always make sure she's being true to her actual thoughts. Don't blame me if they're completely pathetic and pitiable!"

Mima, however, was not listening to the words of the brazen illusion at all after she heard it disregard her own omen, and she brandished her familiar silver staff adorned by a crescent moon shape at the spiteful shrine maiden. _"And the Gensokyo 2009 Darwin Award goes to…"_ Small sparks began to build up on the now-faintly glowing moon atop the staff, and it grew brighter and brighter by the second.

"Besides, I'm obviously not 'the little shrine maiden you used to tease and torment'," Reimu continued with a smug smile while completely ignoring the evil spirit's actions. "I just look like her because Marisa's using familiar symbols in her mind for depicting her inadequacies." Marisa, noticing the emerald fire in Mima's eyes and the continuously glowing staff that was aimed the shrine maiden, pushed herself out of the embrace she was in, briefly wiped her eyes to cleanse them of tears, and staggered toward her mistress's side. Reimu, however, had no intention of stopping the tirade she was so joyfully reciting. "That said, of course, I don't have any doubt that the _real_ Reimu and her buddies think the same way as I do about this pathetic magician; maybe not at the moment, but at some point in their lives. All she ever does is fly around and meaninglessly flirt with girls while stealing their stuff; why would anyone like a worthless brat like that? You know, Marisa going batty and being confined away from everyone else might be the best thing that'll happen to Gensokyo in a long time!"

The beam fired from Mima's staff that followed tore an enormous hole in the fuzzy, confusing existence of the illusion that had engulfed Marisa. Radiant as the sun though tinted slightly green and as wide as a Roman column, its sharp, defined lines branched out from the crescent moon and charged directly at Reimu. As the great laser made contact with and subsequently skewered the simpering girl, Marisa felt a sudden sense of relief on her mind. The laser, though extremely bright, was a familiar image not unlike her own Master Spark, and it eased the sense of unfamiliarity among her. All around her in the valley, the maddening glares of the red-eyed illusions began to fade from view. The water returned to a pleasant, clean, natural color and regained its calming sound, the dimensions of the surrounding cliff straightened themselves out again, and even the harsh, penetrating moonlight was once again reduced to an unobtrusive glow.

Reisen lay on the ground at the exact position that the illusionary Reimu had occupied moments before, and she appeared to be drifting on the border of unconsciousness. The rabbit's clothes were even more tattered than they had been before, and an enormous, singed hole existed in the center of the fabric over her stomach. Though her expression was bitter and disappointed, her eyes had lost all traces of the insane glow that had previously existed within them. Remembering the threatening rabbit once again, Nitori gave a quick cry, dunked her head into the river to fill the water dish on top, and pounced on her with newfound strength and vitality.

"That's it for you now," the kappa said firmly. "I guess you're not just a meanie; you're also an evil little rabbit!" She slung her defeated enemy over her shoulder with surprising strength and held her in place with one arm. "We're going to see what Eirin thinks of all this chaos you've been cooking up!"

"N-no..." Reisen could not break free from the grip she had been placed in, but she whimpered in sadness and dread as her conscious mind began to fluctuate. "Why… why wouldn't you kill me?" she wondered aloud. "I started my lunacy waves extremely intense, and I thought you'd strike me dead to free Marisa from them. I... I did all this so you would kill me right now."

"_If you've really done all of this, death would be an unjust method of cowardly eluding your rightful punishment,"_ another rich voice boomed from what seemed to be the entire valley. Nitori glanced all around her in curiosity about the voice, but except for Marisa, now lying unconscious on the ground a few feet away from her, she appeared to be completely alone in the valley. As she gently added the sleeping magician's body to her carrying load, the wide-eyed kappa could only blink slowly in wonder about what exactly had happened to her witch friend during her period of lunacy. Marisa's resting expression appeared to be both distressed and relieved at the same time; although her lips were dry and tightly pursed, her eyes were gently, peacefully closed.

"_Oh, no need to worry about who I am right now, kappa,"_ the voice continued in a slightly amused tone. _"Just go ahead and get both of them to safety. When Marisa awakens from her sleep, please be a dear and tell her that she won't need to worry about being forever separated from her mentor again; she just needs to keep me in mind."_

Nitori turned her head around wildly. "Wait! Who are you?" she asked with inquisitive eyes, just like a young child witnessing a wondrous show-and-tell moment. "Where did you come from? How'd you defeat Reisen just like that? What happened to Marisa? How'd you know her? Why—"

Another knowing chuckle erupted around the valley._ "Doesn't matter, her mind, magic, hallucinated, old friend. Anyway, just be a nice messenger for me, won't you? La~ter!"_

Beyond the addition of an unconscious magician and rabbit, the Untrodden Valley returned to its natural, calm state with what seemed to be nothing out of place at all. Nitori, though still perplexed about what she had just experienced, smiled as the soothing sound of the river filled her ears once again.

* * *

><p>"<em>I'm on the dirt road heading to Kourindou, about… 45 minutes out, I'd say<em>," Patchouli reported through the communicating medical book that glowed a weak shade of lavender on Eirin's coffee table. "_Lots of trees, grass, boulders, flowers, and, umm… dirt, but no sign of anything that could take down Youmu or Yuyuko here_."

"I guess that's to be expected," Eirin remarked in a slightly dry, disappointed murmur. "Didn't suppose the villains here would just jump out of the bushes and say 'Hi, Patchouli! We kidnapped the two ghost girls, so come and get us!'" She cleared her throat. "So, has there been nothing at all of interest?"

"_Hmm… Well, I'm not sure if it means anything_," Patchouli began uncertainly. "_I suppose that darkness youkai could be wandering around trying to stir up trouble tonight, or maybe Suika or Tenshi is playing with her powers, but…_"

"Yes?" Eirin inquired earnestly.

"_A billowing patch of dark, ominous clouds formed seemingly out of nowhere overhead a few minutes ago_," the librarian replied with a slightly sinister undertone, just as if she were telling a ghost story around a campfire. "_It wasn't like anything I've ever seen before, and it certainly didn't look natural from the way it just quivered across the sky at high speed. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I may have also heard this unsettling sound coming from it like a baby crying, or laughing, or squawking like a bird, or roaring like a lion, or _something_ to that extent._"

Eirin was dumbfounded by what she had heard, and she folded her arms with a raised eyebrow. "Are you pulling my leg here, Patchouli?"

"_Honestly, that's what I saw and heard_," she answered. "_Maybe the world has changed so much since the last time I went outside that it's the kind of thing you'd expect to encounter, but otherwise, it definitely seems like an unearthly creature is active tonight. What its intentions are, I have no idea, but it did send a bit of a shiver down my spine just hearing that phantom cry_." She went silent for a moment or two. Eirin waited feverishly for the librarian to continue speaking again, which she did with a calmer, more rational tone of voice. "_Still, I doubt that apparition, or whatever it was, had anything to do with the disappearance of the Hakugyokurou girls. From what I could tell, it originated from the direction of Youkai Mountain and seemed to move directly toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion. If anything, I'd say _you _would be the one who would encounter it instead of me if it decides to act belligerently toward us._"

The pharmacist shuffled her feet uneasily, looking toward the window at the pitch-black outside world beyond the mansion. "I-I'll keep that in the back of my mind, but it's hardly something we need to be concerned about right now if it doesn't relate to this situation. Let's just cross the bridge when we come to it."

"_Of course_." Patchouli's voice carried a hint of suspicion as if she was curious as to why Eirin refused to comment further on the strange phenomenon she was describing, but she didn't press the topic further.

Eirin cleared her throat again, shaking any sound of doubt from her voice. "Anyway, back to the subject on hand: Kourindou, and what's going on there. I tried to contact Mr. Rinnosuke just a few minutes ago, but there was no response; either he's been sleeping through everything that's been going on in his store, or, the far likelier option, something has happened to him as well."

"_Well, that shouldn't be much of a problem for me_," Patchouli replied with dry pride. "_I came well prepared with seven of my best elemental spells, including the Philosopher's Stone. If any adversary tries to take me down, they'll have to first make it through their choice of fire, water, wood, earth, metal, sun, or moon_."

Eirin smiled, imagining in her mind the short, cute, non-imposing librarian walking down the road with a proud smirk as she believed that she was invincible with her spells. "That's good to hear. Just… be careful, all right? Seems like we've already lost three people to whatever happened in there, and it'll be terrible if we lose you, too. Contact me the moment you sense anything's amiss."

"_You got it_," Patchouli replied. "_I'll be damned if anything will keep me from fulfilling my promise of getting to the bottom of this incident_." Her voice drifted into nothing for few moments, almost as if she were finished speaking, before resuming with what seemed to Eirin as a dark chuckle. "_You be careful, too, okay? Though she's probably calmed down by now, Miss Remilia has experienced just the slightest bit of insanity tonight and acted in such a way that the little sister will certainly not approve of when she finds out about it._"

Eirin paused for a moment, bringing a hand to her mouth. Although she appeared bewildered, a very subtle gleam sparkled within each iris as well. "What... what sort of insanity do you mean? If it's something like schizophrenia or psychosis, I could probably heal her with one of my mental illness drugs, you know."

Patchouli laughed softly at that, prompting her to suffer a sudden coughing fit before responding. _"Nope, this is definitely _not_ the sort of thing you could just cure with a shot of whatever. There's no need to worry about it though; Miss Remilia should definitely be coming back to her right mind by now. The only thing you should be concerned about is if a civil war breaks out in the house, and that's definitely a possibility for those two sisters tonight."_

Eirin waited in silent anticipation for Patchouli to elaborate with an explanation, biting her lip in minor frustration when none came. "Is that right? Well, I have enough on my plate already tonight, working on this incident with you and taking care of these patients. If those filthy devils want to turn this house into a battlefield, they'd better keep the chaos out in the hallways and not bother me with it."

_"Great," _Patchouli answered dully. _"Let's just hope they share that idea. Anyway, I'll contact you again when I reach the store or if anything abnormal show up." _With the hasty farewell spoken, the tome through which her voice had been echoing lost its lavender glow and returned to a dark shade of navy.

Silence filled the room again, and Eirin yawned softly to herself as she contemplated everything Patchouli had said to her. It wasn't until she heard her yawn echoed a few moments later that she remembered her rabbit acquaintance Tewi Inaba was still in the room. While she had fiercely interrogated the rabbit over what had happened to Yuyuko about an hour ago, Eirin had nearly forgotten about her afterward. It seemed almost a miracle that the mischievous Tewi hadn't scampered off while Eirin's attention was focused elsewhere, but she was too exhausted by that hour of the night to be focused on pulling pranks. Instead, she seemed far more interested in relaxing and doing nothing.

Glancing around the makeshift infirmary and spotting the unmoving Yakumo household lined up on the floor, Eirin quickly resumed what she had been doing prior to contacting Patchouli: treating Chen and Yukari. After several minutes of running various tests on the unconscious bodies with a variety of equipment, she turned back to the other conscious person in the room with a face of stoic duty. "Tewi, could you draw a blood sample from Yukari for me, please?"

Eirin's request was quite a simple one, but it fell on deaf rabbit ears. As she turned away from writing on various sheets of paper about her patients, she saw the small rabbit nonchalantly sitting on top of the central coffee table, her legs dangling off the edge. Tewi glanced back at her and wriggled her nose with a smile, but she did nothing else before turning back to stare at the bodies lying on the floor.

"Tewi," Eirin repeated with slight agitation in her voice, "I said, could you—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, get some blood from the gap hag," Tewi replied dismissively, not even bothering to look at the older woman this time. "Heard ya the first time, but I'm not too keen on doing it anyhow. Handling blood without getting all squeamish really isn't my forte in life."

Eirin folded her arms and squinted at the rabbit with disapproval. "Frankly, I could not care less about whether or not you _want_ to do it. Right now, you're acting as my assistant here, and we need to analyze Miss Yakumo's blood to ensure it'll be safe for her to wake up in an hour."

Tewi shrugged without care and stretched her arms toward the ceiling, yawning loudly. "I don't get why I got saddled with being a 'medical assistant' or whatever in the first place. Not like I know squat about any of this stuff!"

Eirin dropped the pen with which she was using to write and looked Tewi in the eye. "If Reisen has gone completely rogue as it seems, I'm going to need to acquire a new assistant for all of the work I perform. Naturally, I can't impose on the princess to do that, which means the only decently intelligent candidate left from Eientei would be you, Tewi. I believe it's perfectly reasonable to ask you to perform a small amount of work instead of endlessly freeloading and playing tricks on others all day."

"That's all well and good," Tewi said with an easygoing smile, "and I might be willing to help you out, but for tonight, it's three AM right now and I am exhausted beyond belief! This little rabbit needs her beauty sleep, you know; how else would you expect I'd be able to live to be a million years old and look not a day older than Cirno does?" She patted Eirin on the back with a playful giggle. "All those late nights at the lab must be the reason why you look your age!"

Eirin let the jab pass with an unamused look on her face, but her expression became serious again shortly after. "Besides that, you're not exactly off the hook yet, Tewi. True, it looks highly likely that Reisen wrote the death threat letter and framed you for it, but we can't be completely sure of that until all the pieces of evidence have come together. It's obvious that the good-for-nothing shrine maiden can't be counted on to watch over you tonight after the fine job she's done so far, so I suppose I'll have to do it myself."

Tewi leaned over the side of the table in an attempt to touch the toes of her bare feet, and she managed to stretch enough to do so with quite a bit of success. "So, do ya expect me to work until I faint on the floor from sleepiness, then? I really don't think that's too hot of an idea." She picked up the blood syringe from the table and began to casually toss it up and down with one hand. "What happens if I get too tired and accidentally plunge this baby into someone's brain or something?"

Before Eirin could sharply rebuke her rabbit assistant, the sound of quiet, steady footsteps approaching from the hallway caught her attention. Looking toward the door of the infirmary, she saw Alice emerging from the outside darkness, her mouth drawn into a tight and emotionless line. Her striking, sharp blue eyes stared directly at Eirin's own grey ones with the same gravity that combatants of the Civil War in similar colors may have felt, and her seriousness was quite well-matched by the two girls in her arms who appeared to have more charcoal than fairy flesh on their bones. Even Tewi seemed to feel the serious atmosphere as her grin began to wane slightly.

"Ah, Alice," Eirin greeted diplomatically with a flat smile. "It's great to see that you're still around tonight. I had begun to think that Patchouli and I were the only ones left trying to get to the bottom of this incident."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Is that right? I didn't think Reimu would be one to so easily give up on doing her job in a situation like this."

Slightly biting her lip, Eirin glanced worriedly beyond the doll maker into the dark hallway outside the room. "That might be the main problem here, actually. Seems like the shrine maiden has just dismissed this as another everyday incident that she can solve by lazily going about her regular routine; neither her shrine nor her lifestyle seems to have been placed in jeopardy by the events. But when has an incident in Gensokyo ever involved directly trying to murder, drug, or kidnap people?"

"Gotta be the first one," Tewi answered quickly, adding herself to the conversation. "I've lived here longer than any of you guys, and the worst I've ever seen has been when someone stole someone else's pudding." She smirked nostalgically and licked her lips. "And the poor bastard never even found out whose stomach that delicious stuff went into!"

"Nevertheless, I think it's safe to say I'm a bit concerned at this point," Eirin continued. "Unlike most of these fanciful incidents that end with a tea party with the instigators, this one simply feels... dangerous. Yukari and her clan have all been swept away, Yuyuko and her servant have gone missing, my own rabbit assistant has apparently become one of the leaders of a rebellion, and it's anyone's guess as to what exactly happened to the members of the this house. I don't know what it means to see the vampire chasing her gatekeeper down the hallway with a crazed look in her eyes, but it can't be anything good." Her voice settled into a graver tone. "My main duty is to protect Princess Kaguya in any way possible, and even though she currently sleeps in an impenetrable bedroom, I'm afraid that the mastermind of this incident may strike at Eientei with the same deadly force like they used with Mayohiga."

Alice, in contrast to the surly mood she had placed herself in after arguing with Marisa, blinked with genuine surprise; she had never before seen the usually calm, condescending, curt doctor display uncertainty. "Well, the sooner we find the mastermind of this plot, the sooner everything can get back to normal."

"I suppose that's true," was the quiet, devoid-of-confidence reply.

"Anyway," Alice continued, "I'll get down to business about why I'm here. While Marisa and I were taking a stroll around Youkai Mountain, we encountered these two fairies, burned and battered as you see them now. They said that while they were seeking Reisen, they were assaulted by an apparently murderous Hina... or something like that. Dunno how much of it is accurate, but they said that Reisen did indeed come and save them from certain death by attacking Hina, at which point they fled. So, now that Marisa is bringing Reisen in, I brought these two to you so that you can help them." With a couple twirls and flicks of the thin wires attached to her fingers, the two dolls currently hovering over Alice's shoulders got to work. Shanghai gingerly picked up Cirno around the waist and, careful to avoid doing anything to make her moan in agonizing pain, slowly set her down on the floor to the left of Yukari's unconscious body. Hourai quickly followed suit with Daiyousei, whose injuries were not too severe to keep her from saying a quick "thank you" immediately afterward. Once the two dolls had completed their objective, their master turned back to Eirin. "Nurse them back to full health, please," Alice commanded simply. She turned around to exit the room, but was stopped in place by a particularly cold sound of a throat clearing.

"Pardon me, Alice," Eirin said in a polite yet uneasy tone with a strained smile as she glanced back and forth between the fairies and doll maker, "but... this isn't exactly a simple matter of healing."

Alice glanced backward behind her shoulder, and both of her dolls that were still tending to Cirno and Daiyousei mirrored the motion to focus on the pharmacist. "Is there a problem, Eirin?"

Eirin motioned toward the two fairies lying on the floor, pointing particularly on the blackened sections of Cirno's face. "The green-haired one looks reasonably treatable, but as for Cirno... You told me the fairies were injured, not barbecued!"

"Now that you mention it," Tewi piped up from the other side of the room, "I was gonna ask what smelled so good around here!" She wriggled her nose in the air with a curious smile. "Wonder if this mansion's storing any bottles of steak sauce."

Alice's expression turned down toward a look of disgust and disappointment. "If you think this is a joke, I guess I'll go out and find a real doctor who isn't a useless quack!"

"That's not what I meant," Eirin replied, still possessing a tense smile. "Still... Cirno has third degree burns here; it looks like the affected parts of her skin have become burned to the core. It's a wonder she's still alive after wandering around for so long."

"And?"

"And..." Eirin glanced solemnly at the charred streaks along the ice fairy's cheeks, "under normal circumstances, the proper treatment for such an injury can take weeks, maybe months, of treatment. It's not just a matter of injecting them with some magical serum that can instantly heal them, if that's what you were thinking."

Alice's glare continued to blaze brightly, just as if it itself had been the cause of the burns. "It's pretty hard to believe that someone who has engineered dreams, genetically altered fish, knows every drug in existence, and mixed an elixir of _goddamn immortality_ can't give quick medical treatment for a burn."

Eirin shook her head patiently yet condescendingly at the bitter youkai. She picked up a smooth, shiny scalpel from the pile of medical equipment on the table and held it tightly in one hand as she continued to glance at the fairies. "Frankly, I know it sounds pretty cruel, but if you want them to be healthy again, the best and quickest way I know would be, well..."

"What?!" Alice demanded, raising her voice.

Eirin glanced down at her feet before speaking bluntly. "Killing them and letting them come back to life again as fairies do."

After it seemed as though the aloof and bitter girl had reached her peak in anger, Alice became completely silent after this moment. She simply kept her eyes trained on Eirin, still as a statue. The stare no longer seemed directly malicious, being a flat gaze, but this didn't make it any easier for Eirin to witness.

"That's not to say I _recommend_ doing that, of course," Eirin added quickly. "My Hippocratic oath specifically forbids me from doing that sort of thing, although I'm not exactly sure how valid it pertains to immortal patients like these ones. Still, it's just something you should be aware of."

Tewi burst out laughing. "Really? You really think _that_ was the best thing to say to this loose cannon? You're just asking for one of her dolls to skewer you with a lance!"

Eirin's face flushed beet-red, and she cursed under her breath before attempting to smile diplomatically at Alice. "I-I mean, I'm sure they've died plenty of times already and have resurrected enough to be used to the process, so you shouldn't be too concerned about them feeling pain and agony from death." She glanced hopefully at both Tewi, but the rabbit's amused look told her that the revised statement was even worse than the original. Her mouth opened again as if to try a third time, but she decided against it after a moment's thought and simply knitted her brow crossly. "There's a reason I went into pharmacology instead of becoming a doctor of medicine, Tewi," Eirin hissed. "I'm terrible at the whole 'good bedside manner' routine. People always think I'm either a self-righteous Lunarian asshole or a creepy mad scientist, you know?"

She inhaled deeply, and finally let her breath out after a few minutes, smiling softly at Alice. "Look, there's only one of me, all right? If it were any other day, I'd be more than happy to do all I can for these two, but right now I have to deal with an unknown threat Patchouli's going to confront, a traitorous Udonge, and whatever the hell is going on in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I'm sorry, but I simply can't spare the time to perform a skin graft surgery tonight."

The doll maker dropped her piercing stare and glanced pensively around the room. Looking at the line of bodies that now totaled five, she turned back to the pharmacist with a small, determined smile. "I hope you haven't forgotten that I'm around and quite able to help, Eirin. I'll keep tabs on Patchouli from here and watch over the Yakumos. Marisa should be coming back here with Reisen in tow very soon, and she should be able to handle interrogating her just fine. That should leave you and your new, erm, 'assistant' plenty of time to treat Cirno and Daiyousei, no?"

"Well... I suppose that would help matters," Eirin admitted, "but performing an operation is no simple task! My equipment here isn't even close to what's adequate for a skin graft. And besides that, I think it would be best if I question Reisen myself. I'm sure Marisa would put in a fine effort, but I've known that rabbit for a long time. I could dig deeply into her personal weaknesses far more efficiently than that witch could."

"Then get Tewi to fetch your tools from Eientei," Alice countered coolly. "I'm sure Marisa would be happy to keep Reisen locked down until you finish and can interrogate her." She placed her hands on her hips and smirked slyly. "Really, for a genius of medicine of your caliber, this should be a simple task." She motioned with her head toward the two fairies. As if on cue, they both raised their heads slightly with wide, innocent eyes. "Or, of course, you could let these cute kids suffer excruciating pain after helping us find that rabbit. It's your choice, really."

In that moment, it seemed as though Eirin had completely run out of energy to protest against Alice's idea. A sense of exhaustion gripped her body, and she slumped to the ground, defeated. "All right, you win," she grumbled. "As long as you make sure you stay on top of _everything _here, I suppose there's no real harm in you taking over while I do the surgery."

"Wonderful!" Alice said, a smile of triumph spreading across her face. After a few seconds without any response from the doctor, she folded her arms impatiently. "Well? You said time was of the essence tonight, right? Get to it already!"

"Heh, when Reisen's no longer under your complete control, you're quite the submissive underling, aren't you?" Tewi noted, focusing an observing glance on Eirin. No verbal response met the rabbit, but she did see an ashamed blush form on the cheeks of her master.

Though it was quite strange for the Lunarian pharmacist to be ordered around as if she were one of Alice's dolls, she shrugged off the possible humiliation of doing so and began to rapidly scribble out a list on a sheet of paper. As soon as she was finished, she thrust the note into Tewi's hands. "A list of everything I'll need from Eientei," she explained simply. "They're all labeled clearly and organized in my office, so you should have no trouble finding them." She smiled with an expression that seemed to be made from equal parts authority and mischief. "Think of this as a test to see whether or not I can trust you as a reliable assistant."

Tewi quickly scanned the "medical shopping list" and then looked up at Eirin with earnest eyes. "If I do this for you, can I head off to bed afterward? Please?"

"Of course!" Eirin's brief expression of warm praise quickly transformed into pensive thought again. "Before you go, though... I can't exactly let you leave alone. It's not that I don't exactly trust you, per say, but we can't afford to take any risks. If you actually _are _helping Reisen or whoever else is behind this incident, letting you loose like this would be a disaster." She shook her head. "But I don't want to leave this house in case something happens to these patients, and Alice can't exactly go either. So who—"

"Shanghai." Alice only uttered one quick word, as if she were answering a trivia question with the name of a Chinese city, before she began to carefully direct the doll strings attached to her fingers. In just a moment, the doll tending to Cirno floated into the air and settled on a surprised Tewi's shoulder, looking up to the rabbit with determined eyes. "I can monitor events through her eyes just as I did with Marisa when she explored the underground a few weeks ago. Should Tewi try any funny business along the way, she'll have to get through either Shanghai's lance, or, if all else fails, an explosion of gunpowder."

"We're going to have the world's trickiest rabbit be monitored by a _doll_?" Eirin questioned, glancing sideways in doubt.

"I would trust Shanghai with my life," Alice answered confidently. "I believe she's only one step away from gaining full sentience. Whatever Tewi might throw at her, she should be able to handle with ease."

Eirin shook her head slowly. As before, her grey eyes seemed to accurately reflect the Lunarian's ancient age with their tiredness, and all the fight was taken out of her. "Fine. If you think your doll can keep an eye on Tewi on her trip to Eientei, so be it."

Tewi snorted, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. "Give me _some_ credit," she said in mild indignation. "I don't wanna see these fairies suffer any more than you do. I'm not just gonna whip out the tricks in your time of need here."

With that, after a few more quick preparations, Tewi leapt out of the infirmary with an enthusiastic spring in her step. Shanghai rested comfortably on the rabbit's shoulder, somewhat resembling a pirate's parrot by doing so. As Eirin began to silently examine her two newest patients, Alice took a seat on the coffee table in the center of the room. The medical tome used to communicate with Patchouli lay on her left, and the Hourai doll through which she could keep watch on Tewi and Shanghai settled in on her right. She peered into the darkness of the hallway that lay beyond the doorway, the same one that had held bloodthirsty vampires and psychotic youkai alike a short while ago, and smiled. "All right, incident," she said out loud, "do your worst. I'm ready."

* * *

><p>"I'm going to murder Lily White," Mystia said. "I'm going to obliterate Lily White. I'm going to massacre Lily White. I'm going to <em>brutally slice open and dismember <em>Lily White." Though she knew that she would not actually advance her announced goal just by saying it over and over again, it brought comfort to the night sparrow's heart to just say the words out loud. The Forest of Magic was a vast, hopping place crawling with all sorts of life, and so she figured it would be fine to spread the word about her plans in such an active location so that everyone would know. During her cheerful trek all around the dark, cold, noisy forest that night in search of a certain hiding fairy, she had passed by a multitude of various minor fairy and youkai. To each passing denizen of the forest, she had been more than happy to share her plans whether the recipient gave an ounce of caring or even had the brain capacity to understand or not. It was all the same: just another possible audience member to applaud and cheer at the fairy's funeral tomorrow.

As Mystia began to think about all the minor creatures and imps she had encountered in the past hour, her childish and constantly shifting mind briefly touched upon a quartet of young Gensokyo residents she had not seen: Cirno, Daiyousei, Rumia, and Wriggle. She wondered in honest curiosity for a few minutes about where her four friends could be at the moment before recalling what she had done earlier that night.

"Heh, what a change this is gonna be," she thought to herself with a gentle blush of enthusiasm. "It's usually Cirno or Dai-chan who's the smart thinker in the crowd. Everyone's gonna be so surprised when they see it was little ol' Mystia, mild-mannered night sparrow and lamprey vendor, who had the right idea all along!"

Even while her mind flashed back to the ever-present idea of killing Lily White, Mystia reviewed with almost nostalgic wistfulness the story of her close companions in her head. She felt a twinge of remorse (though she referred to it in her mind as "past-tense badness") as she remembered how callous and spiteful she had treated the rest of her team that night in order to accomplish her efforts. True, Yuuka had instructed her to ensure that Rumia and Wriggle would join her at Kourindou "by any means possible," but it was mostly from her own opinions alone that she had decided to act with such meanness and force toward the others. It had come to a complete surprise to her that Cirno and Daiyousei in particular had absolutely no desire to play a role in the revolution that would bring them into power; Mystia had imagined that the rest of her friends would be just as excited about the situation as she herself had been when Yuuka had approached her in the beginning.

"Well, nobody thought that Beethoven guy would be popular when he started with his whole 'deaf to all but the song' routine, so I guess these things just take a little time," she assured herself out loud, not bothering to keep her thoughts within her head. "I just hope Wriggle-chan and Rumia will forgive me for handing them over like that. But they shouldn't be mad at me, anyway. I like them. I love them, and they love me too. It's _Lily White_ whom I'm going to massacre."

Mystia was still in a blithe mood after stepping onto cloud nine by defeating Yuyuko, and so the moment of regret for acting so callously toward her friends was quickly replaced again by the endless fountain of joy she felt. After all, this would be a momentous day in the young sparrow's life, perhaps the single turning point of transformation from a punching-bag and nuisance into a serious, respected, first-class citizen of Gensokyo who could now live out all her dreams without fear. It would be mad of her not to feel extremely excited, she reasoned.

All the while she had been deep in thought about the night of the night sparrow, Mystia had still been continuously flying through the Forest of Magic. The pitch-black groves and minimal light from the moon were not at all disconcerting to her, and yet they also meant that she would be blindly wandering through the thick reaches of the forest. While singing, cooking lampreys, and causing night blindness were talents of Mystia, multitasking and focusing on multiple situations at the same time were not. By the time the night sparrow had escaped from her reverie and finally made a decision to navigate her way back from the depths of the rather unfamiliar Forest of Magic, it was a bit too late.

Mystia was startled to find that she was no longer surrounded by such an extremely thick expanse of trees; indeed, the only trees she could now see in the area were those that neatly lined both sides of a wide, expansive dirt road. The excessive noise and chattering of the multitude of youkai from the forest had all but died away, leaving the moonlit road eerily silent. The night sparrow spun in a single circle to take in her surroundings, still not quite sure how she had so suddenly left the Forest of Magic. All that appeared still alive in this area was a gently swaying field of weeds and long grass growing between the lines of trees and the road borders, and even this seemed somewhat incomplete and half-dead to Mystia. If she were crafting a classic horror novel or ghost story, the sparrow decided, this would be the setting for where the young, tender couple would attempt to express their affection, only meet their bloody end at the hands of a deranged murderer.

Although the stench and feeling of death in the atmosphere was disconcerting, to say the least, Mystia strangely felt herself invigorated with replenished enthusiasm instead of dull apathy. With such a second wind flowing beneath her wings, her desires toward participating in the revolution and gaining retribution again the fairy of springtime seemed to multiply tenfold within her mind.

"That's right," she said to herself, scowling with absolute hostility as a particular thought ran through her mind. "We'll go through with this, and Lily White _will_ pay for the unforgivable deed she's committed." Mystia carefully held out a hand and examined the long, green fingernails that extended from each appendage, making sure that none of them were too sharp or protruding. After the once-over with her nails passed her test, she took a deep breath and slowly but surely brought her hands up to her feathered hat.

Once her fingers reached the soft fabric of the brown hat, they carefully gripped the edge on both sides before lifting directly vertically. As soon as her hat had reached about a foot above her head and had exposed her short, magenta hair completely, she released her fingers' grasp and let the hat lightly and carelessly flutter onto the ground. From that point, she tried to look upwards to observe what had been covered beneath the fabric all this time, but then realized the impossibility of trying to stare at an object on one's head. With a slight sigh, she reached upward toward her head again and slowly, nimbly grasped the precious item that lay uncovered there. Once her fingers had a very gentle but solid grasp of the object that lay balanced on her crown, she took another deep breath before slowly lowering them toward eye level. There, she could once again see it in all its glory.

Even though Mystia's mind was intimately devoted to and familiar toward what now lay in her hands, she still felt a wave of horror, nausea, and depression run through her body upon gazing at it once again. There, lying still in one quivering hand, was the lifeless, mutilated body of a baby sparrow. The tiny creature, still in what would be its embryonic state, had little more than a raw, pink body and a miniature beak to call its own, and yet it was clear that the bird would never have a chance to fly, walk, breath, or love in its life. The head and skull, which should have been sharply defined and rigid, lay lopsided and grotesquely contorted into almost a new shape entirely against the side of the sparrow's body. The shape of the appendages that would have soon grown wings lay bent and useless at horrifying angles, more resembling the structures of pterodactyl wings than those of sparrows. Though the body was dry, the multitude of scratches mapped across its entirety like branches or cobwebs still bore a scarlet tint to their surfaces. However, it would not remain dry for long, as a few droplets of tears quickly began to fall upon the corpse, gently dousing it in a sorrowful rain.

"L-Lily," she moaned quietly to herself, "why? _Why_?! How could you...?" Her free hand, previously attempting to cover her eyes instinctively, began to curl into a shaking, quivering fist that roughly wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I'll... I'll kill you."

"Oh my... Is this what you were talking about when you mentioned that Lily White had wronged you?"

Mystia's head immediately whipped around to spot who had spoken. She instinctively brandished her nails threateningly with a glare in case it was an enemy. When she saw who had spoken to her in such a soothing and motherly tone, however, she let her cover crumble. Not even bothering to hide her object of heartbreak behind her back, she slowly staggered toward the new person a few meters away along the road. She didn't wonder how another living being could have snuck up on her in such a unique location; she only wished to somehow escape from the rush of sadness and despair that had instantly consumed her. "M-Miss Yuuka…"

"Yes, it's me," the flower youkai replied, giving a strained smile as a greeting. "I decided on a whim to walk down the Road of Reconsideration on my journey back to the Forest of Magic. I hadn't expected to meet anyone on my way, however."

Mystia choked back a sigh of hopelessness as she looked back and forth between Yuuka and the deceased sparrow. "And now you know about it…"

"I… I'm not quite sure what to say," Yuuka admitted, glancing aside with a solemn, gloomy look as she stopped the twirling of her umbrella completely, "other than how utterly sorry I am." She turned her head completely away to avoid looking at the night sparrow even out of the corner of her eye. "Besides that, this was clearly something you wanted to keep to yourself about. I shouldn't have intruded on it without your permission, and so I'm quite sorry for that as well."

"No," Mystia mumbled almost inaudibly. As she gently and caringly placed the lifeless sparrow upon her head again and covered it with her hat, she smiled faintly. "C-Cirno and Dai-chan and the rest are really nice, but they wouldn't get it. I know if I told them about it, they'd just try to cheer me up or tell me there are plenty of birds in the air or something like that instead of helping me try to get back at Lily." The night sparrow quickly leapt forward almost in a single moment, and she did not stop sprinting until she reached Yuuka's back and could wrap her petite arms around the youkai's warm, soft torso. "But you're different, Miss Yuuka. I shouldn't have ever kept it a secret from you in the first place. I j-just thought you might laugh at me like anyone else would for crying over a sparrow."

Yuuka also smiled gently as she felt the sparrow's embrace around her middle. "You said she had done something so horrible to you to make you seek revenge against her, and from what I see, that's not an exaggeration at all. I can't say I know how you're exactly feeling over this. Still, I think I might possibly feel the same way if an arsonist callously set fire to all of my sunflower fields at once." She paused for a moment, listening to the sparrow's soft, burbling breathing against her back. "I realize it might be rather intrusive of me, and you can certainly say no, but would it possibly help to have a sympathetic soul hear the whole story as we walk back toward Kourindou? My ears are open, should you wish to tell."

"I can try, I guess." Mystia fell into a deep world of thought at that moment. As she began to conjure up various memories from the depths of her mind, the look of destructive insanity slowly began to force out the previous sorrow from her eyes and take its place. Yuuka turned around fully to face the direction of the road leading back into the Forest of Magic, and as she did, Mystia's petite hand quickly and almost forcibly thrust itself into her own. "Funny story, really. Lily must've thought it was a hoot!"

Yuuka turned inquisitively toward Mystia with a softly questioning smile, though her glance grew worried upon seeing the sparrow's eyes. "Pardon?"

"Well you see, about two weeks ago I came across this nest full of these adorable, tiny sparrow eggs," Mystia explained. Her vocal speed was only one step away from speaking in panicking rush, although her actual tone sounded unnaturally nonchalant. "Up high, high in the treetops, on a top branch of the tallest tree in the Bamboo Forest, it was. Of course, I'm not technically a sparrow any more, but I still wanted to make sure those soon-to-be sparrow babies would be safe and sheltered from all the crazy dangers in Gensokyo."

"Of course," Yuuka agreed sympathetically. "I can't remember how many times I've passed by a lone sunflower in one field or another and yearned to shield the dear child from any sort of peril it might encounter. I can see why you would be similarly maternal toward sparrows."

"That's not all, though," Mystia said, her eyes gaining a reprieve from their madness at the moment. "I waited a little while with the eggs to see if their mommy would come back, since they were all alone. I knew if she came back, she wouldn't be happy with me for sitting there with her babies, looking like I was gonna cook an omelet or something. But still, I didn't wanna let them out of my sight and come back to some horrible demon chowing down on his breakfast, so I sat there and waited." She smiled, somewhat embarrassed. "And waited and waited and waited. By the time about twelve hours had passed, I guessed that the mommy bird wasn't going to come back. So, I decided that it was now my job to be the mommy and take care of the young, since nobody else was gonna.

"That started a really wonderful week," Mystia continued. The insanity of her eyes had nearly completed faded into wistful nostalgia, and she gently squeezed Yuuka's hand for comfort. "I know the sparrows weren't exactly born yet, but still, I think all those people who complain about how annoying childcare is are a bunch of liars! Instead of just wandering around like a brainless fairy, I had a mission to do, and I loved it! Every time any random youkai or rabbit or human or whatever came even close to the tree, I sent 'em soaring away with a bewitching song. During that really cold night in the middle of the week, I made sure the eggs were nice and warm by carefully clutching them to my chest underneath my dress. I followed the advice Cirno once gave about letting babies listen to music by singing my best melodies to them, I built the nicest and most insulated nest I could make for them, I stopped hanging out with the gang the entire time, I even asked that human librarian girl for a book on raising children when she passed by... I _was_ the mommy, and all of it made me feel just so happy!" Her face broke out into a full beam of utmost joy, the type that seemed reserved for only beings who have just found their reason for living.

Yuuka felt a certain sense of warmth and fulfillment spreading from her solar plexus, and she couldn't help but grin in an almost goofy fashion as she listened to and watched Mystia. "Taking care of the young ones is really unlike anything else in the world, isn't it?"

"You said it!" Mystia agreed with an enthusiastic chirp.

Yuuka continued to smile in a more distant way, almost like a cat looking and listening intently to something undetectable to humans. "Yes, living in a land of young, green youkai whom I could warmly watch over as they slowly grow up and experience the wonders and joys of life peacefully, no bullying humans or powerful monsters in sight. Wouldn't that be a life worth living..."

"Eh? Anyway, continuing on with my story..." Mystia's expression lost its gleaming joy in favor of a downcast gloom almost immediately, and she struggled not to choke over her subsequent words. "Last Friday, the vernal equinox, was when it all went... _horribly_ wrong. It was early in the evening when I woke up with the eggs to hear the sound that happens every year on that day: the spring fairy Lily White zipping around Gensokyo and shouting 'It's spring!' at the top of her lungs over and over again. Like every year, I groaned and tried to get back to sleep, 'cause she'd eventually fade out of earshot or wear herself out doing that. Only this time, the shouts of spring never got any quieter. After a while it reached the point where the announcement sounded like it was coming from right underneath me. I open my eyes and, lo and behold, the slimy, despicable fairy from Hell was standing right there at the base of the tree, waving her arms and grinning like an idiot!

"'Could you please get out of the tree?' she called up to me. Said it was part of her yearly routine in the spring to climb the tallest tree in the forest and shout her message from there, she did. Of course, my newly adopted sparrow eggs were gathered in the nest up there, so like hell I was gonna move for her! I told her to get lost. After that point, though, Lily… well, she…" Mystia's voice faded into silence, and when she tried to continue her sentence, she could only manage a weak, wheezing sound instead.

Yuuka looked toward the young sparrow with comforting sympathy, squeezing her slender hand in return. "It's okay, Mystia. You don't need to continue if you don't want to; I can assume how the story ends. I'm… I'm so sorry for your loss."

Mystia, however, neither became soothed by Yuuka's consolation nor seemed content to finish talking at that moment. She took a deep, stressed breath, wiped away the wetness from her wide eyes, and opened her mouth again. "That's not quite the end, though. Even though I told Lily over and over again that I was living there now and couldn't leave, it was like talking to a brick wall. She started shaking the tree trunk really violently, and even from doing it down there, I felt the limb the nest and I were on bouncing up and down sickeningly. It wasn't so bad for myself, but I could see the nest of helpless eggs swaying back and forth, with each motion getting closer and closer to tipping over. Even when I shouted so desperately at her to stop, offering to get out and move to another tree with the nest, she just laughed innocently and continued getting into the act. I couldn't pick up the nest myself since I was afraid I would fall over and drop them myself to a wretched end on the hard ground, and I knew if they just stayed there, they'd fall by themselves. I could see my eggs tipping right on the verge of death, and I was completely helpless to stop them… It was a thousand times more terrifying than being devoured by that Yuyuko ghost."

Yuuka winced painfully, imagining herself tied down to the earth in the middle of her sunflower field while the plants began to incinerate. She expected that Mystia would also cringe in terror after relating such a story, but the sparrow was oddly, eerily calm and composed in the moment.

"Finally, just when I thought the nest would horrifyingly crash onto the ground, she stopped. I fell over backwards onto the limb, but by some miracle, the eggs stayed completely safe and sound." She giggled slightly, her wide pupils bouncing around in every direction. "Lily flew up to stand next to me with her sugary-sweet grin, and before I could get back on my feet to slap her smug face into thin air, she snatched up the nest in her arms.

"'So~wwy,' she laughed, ruffling my hair like I was some stupid little kid. 'Just gotta take these. The spring festival today has balut eggs on the menu, and I couldn't find the main ingredients anywhere else. I know it's pretty inconvenient, and I'm sorry about that, but I just need to make sure everything runs like clockwork on the most important day of the year!'" Mystia chuckled almost merrily, looking up at a horrified Yuuka with her mouth open as if waiting for the punchline of a joke. "That's right; she thought she'd use my beloved baby sparrows which I had been raising with the upmost care as _hors d'oeuvres_ for her feast! Hilarious, ain't it?"

Yuuka's once cherry and optimistic mood about the day had completely plummeted into a mixture of despair, horror, and sympathy. As she looked through the tearstained lenses of her eyes at the grinning night sparrow, her happiness only sunk further, and she couldn't even manage a comforting reply in the moment.

"'Course, it's not like I just laid down and let her get away. I tried my best to get back up and smack her down. But I was still a little disoriented, and before I could raise my arm to get her, she gave me a sharp kick in the gut. Then, she followed that up with a big burst of danmaku to the face!" With eyes nearly as wide as their surrounding sockets, she looked downward to her stomach and patted it with a good-natured laugh. "It definitely smarted, especially after she gave me another fierce stomp to the belly to put me down for the count. After that, Lily held the nest in one hand, cradling it carefully like _she_ was mommy to the sparrows or something." Mystia stopped laughing and smiling in the moment to scowl fiercely at her last statement, nearly spitting on the side of the path. "Yup, it was like that little wench thought she could take everything about the sparrows away from me, even my status as mommy! If for nothing else, she needs to bleed to death for that."

Yuuka gently released her grasp of Mystia's hand in favor of wrapping her arm around the sparrow's back instead, pulling her in closer into a protective hold. As if acting as a "mommy" herself, she soothingly stroked her companion's arm and softly whispered reassuring, if somewhat meaningless, words into her ear in a comforting tone. While Mystia quickly returned to laughing and grinning somewhat madly without even seeming to acknowledge Yuuka anymore, her state of delirium seemed slightly pacified and less intense than before. The flower youkai smiled softly, trying to not let the flood of sadness from the story keep her from spreading a bit of hopeful optimism.

Mystia cocked her head slightly in deep thought before continuing on, staring forward instead of keeping eye contact with Yuuka like she had completely forgotten about her companion. "Now, here comes the real kicker. Killy Fright here started counting the eggs in the nest like she was a kid ending an Easter egg hunt, what with saying out loud so annoying slow, 'One eggy, two eggies, three eggies,' and so on. But she got to the end and saw that there were seven eggs in total. Apparently that was a big problem, since her recipe only called for six lovely, dear, little unborn sparrows ready to spread their wings into the world but instead would end up boiled alive. She laughed a whole lot about how much of a mistake that was for a few moments before turning back to me and saying she only needed six. So, to fix the problem, she fished a random one out of the nest and casually tossed it over to me, ignoring the nice little fact that we were both on nearly the top limb of a _freaking tree _and I was KEELED OVER IN ACHING PAIN!" By this time Mystia was shuddering and twitching all over in rigid, irregular motions and had eyes nearly as large as dinner plates. Yuuka was afraid the sparrow would explode in the moment, and her fears were hardly quelled when Mystia became completely still and smiled casually and innocently at her. "Well, needless to say, I couldn't catch the egg. It fell off to the side of the tree, giving me the lovely memento of this experience you just saw. Before I could get on my feet and stop her, Lily said her goodbyes and flew off into the sky with the sev—six eggs in tow, and the rest is history."

As Mystia's final word was released into the empty, quiet path, both of the youkai remained silent on their walk. Mystia began to skip and prance along merrily, although she eventually paused and turned back questioningly at Yuuka, who had hardly made any progress walking since the end of the story.

"Well?"

Yuuka's lips parted into a strained smile. "Yes, my dear?"

Mystia shrugged indifferently. "I dunno, just thought you'd have a bit more of a reaction to my story than just looking like _this_." She scrunched up her face into one of exaggerated straightness and blankness in an attempt to match Yuuka's, wrinkles forming on her forehead as a result.

The older youkai waited hesitantly for a second, pursing her lips, before looking earnestly at the sparrow. "To be honest, besides the abundance of sadness, anger, horror, disgust, and sympathy that tale created deep inside of me, it also gave me a great deal of worry. I've known Lily White for as many ages as she's come around with the purpose of spreading cheer for spring, and though she admittedly can be rather, well... irritating and obnoxious at times, I've never seen her as anything but kind, cheerful, and harmless. It's hard to believe she could have made such a radical change nearly overnight."

Mystia stopped in her tracks, and she placed her hands on her hips indignantly. Her eyes, now constricted from their wide circles, were tired, bloodshot slits that nearly froze Yuuka in her tracks. "What, you think I made that story up?! Kinda tough to fake a lifeless sparrow, I think."

"No, of course not," Yuuka said, looking with honest, increasingly anxious eyes at Mystia. "There's no way a story like that could be faked. I just have to wonder if someone is manipulating Lily behind the scenes, tricking her into doing something as horrible as that to you." She sighed somewhat tiredly. "Who it could possibly be and for what reason, I couldn't tell you, but it definitely worries me. I can't help but imagine whoever's doing this is trying to undermine our project. _Someone_ wants to keep Gensokyo as a troubled land where the stronger denizens beat up and bully the weaker ones, and they're willing to commit such atrocities as that to get their way."

"Oh really?" Mystia grinned, exposing a mouth full of sharp, glimmering teeth even Remilia likely would be impressed by. "Well then, let's go find 'em and slice 'em into ribbons!"

Upon hearing that, Yuuka let a smile spread across her face. Instead of it being a malicious, destructive one as Mystia's appeared, however, the smile resembled true, genuine gratitude, and it was accompanied by the formation of softly rosy dimples in the corners of her cheeks. "It's excellent to hear you're so enthusiastic about our project, Mystia, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I promise you'll get to reap the fruits of your labor in just a couple of hours, and nobody will get in our way for that!"

The night sparrow's wings perked up in perfect synchronization with her ears, and she beamed in utter delight. "You mean Team ⑨ and I are finally gonna get the recognition we've been looking for all this time, and I can get my revenge on Lily?"

"You bet!" Yuuka matched the sunny grin present on Mystia's face entirely, feeling a certain warmth spread through her body as she looked at the child's face of genuine happiness.

"Awesome!" After sighing in contentment for a moment, Mystia shrugged somewhat sheepishly, kicking a clod of dirt loose from the road with a feathered shoe. "I mean, I know it's gonna hurt the big humans and youkai in charge right now. I don't mean to be a, um... What was the word you called yourself a little while ago? Like, 'saddest' or something like that?"

"'Sadist,'" Yuuka corrected, her face reddening into a slight blush as she briefly turned away.

"Yeah, sadist! I don't mean to be a sadist; I just think it's finally our time to shine! And Lily really shoulda reconsidered screwing with me like that if she didn't want it to bite her in the butt."

"Perfectly understandable. You don't have to worry about that, Mystia; you're following your heart on this matter, as am I." She paused, turning her cheek away from the bird as she brought a hand to its rosy surface. "Just... I'd appreciate it if you don't call me that word, all right?"

"Eh?" Mystia cocked her head in simple confusion and misunderstanding. "You mean sadist? Isn't that what you said you were yourself? What's so bad about that? Is it like a mean nickname or something, like Cirno and the whole 'baka' thing?"

The bird's inquiry was met by a sustained silence from the older lady, who continued to redden under such a stare. "...Never mind. I suppose I did call myself that, and there's not much sense in taking off that label now."

Mystia shrugged, rather oblivious to the growing shame spreading through Yuuka's heart in the moment. "All right, whatever. So what happens now?"

Yuuka instantly stopped blushing and instead displayed a serious, pensive, small smile. "Well, all the preparatory pieces of the project have nearly come together for us to launch. A few minutes before I met up with you, my informant at the Scarlet Devil Mansion contacted me to say that Reisen had successfully completed her objectives: she has lured the kappa Nitori out of her home and hiding place in the Untrodden Valley. Nitori's dwelling on Youkai Mountain is extremely secure and well-guarded, so getting her out into a less protected place is our best option for capturing her. She is currently heading toward the mansion which, from the swiping of the deed and the subsequent secrets unraveled between the Scarlet sisters, should be entirely unguarded by its residents. This means we can cause a diversion of sorts to flush the kappa out of such a vulnerable location and capture her for ourselves, thereby providing us with an engineer to build the necessary, well, 'revolution weapon', I suppose you could call it. With it, we will seek out and eradicate any strong humans or youkai who refuse to conform with our ideals."

"Is that it?" Mystia inquired, seemingly somewhat underwhelmed by the plan Yuuka had seemed so dedicated toward.

"Not quite. That's the side of the plan for our direct advancement toward revolution; the 'offensive', if you will. The 'defensive' is happening at the same time, just to ensure no resistance can overthrow our project. With that, we're planning on emotionally crippling the greatest threat to ensure she won't rise up against us: Miss Yukari Yakumo. I imagine that killing her would be virtually impossible, and so destroying her last hope in life is the best substitute available. It's already happened that, through Reisen's efforts, Yukari's shikigami Ran was condemned to death, and I figure if the rest of her closest friends are taken away from her as well, she will be too overcome by grief to fight back. That's why we captured Youmu and Yuyuko at Kourindou; as soon as Flandre Scarlet inevitably kills or critically wounds her sister Remilia, we will transport the two ghost girls over to the mansion and its magically sealed basement. When we close the door behind them, they will be sealed by an impenetrable magic only a vampire who will no longer be with us can open. In essence, they'll be 'dead', unable to leave their cell for an eternity. After that the young nekomata Chen, while she mercifully sleeps the night away, will also be taken care of, and Yukari will be subsequently alone and friendless in the world. She will become filled with despair and desire to finally end her misery by herself, and so she will most likely not even attempt to stop our efforts." She rested for a moment, staring grimly at her feet. "Quite brutal and cruel, yes, and I would never condone this plan for lesser motives or ideals, but I believe it's a necessary evil to ensure absolute success and bring Gensokyo back into a haven for the exiled youkai."

"Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet," Mystia spoke ruthlessly and nonchalantly, nodding confidently until she realized her metaphor was reminding her of the tragedy she had just spoken of. "You're the first big youkai I've met who really gets it, Miss Yuuka!"

Yuuka smiled warmly, though her sharp eyes were still focused entirely on fulfilling the project she had just outlined. "Thank you, Mystia! Anyway, as soon as we return to Kourindou, we shall begin our siege upon the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Koakuma will transport the two Hakugyokurou maidens into the basement, I will proceed to our next destination and meeting point, and you..." She reached into the folds of her red-plaid dress to reveal a box of matches and a clear, glass bottle of a liquid she glanced at with some disdain and queasiness. "As much as I naturally despise fire, it's our best option. You'll take these to the Voile Library in the mansion and use them to start a great inferno there, giving you and Koakuma a golden opportunity to find and capture the helpless, vulnerable Nitori in the panic."

Mystia nodded firmly, grabbing the objects out of Yuuka's hands and holding them snugly to her chest. "Got it. I'll get Nitori out in the open and snatch her away. Then it'll be no problem taking her to you at, umm..." She faltered in her words and looked up with a certain blankness at Yuuka. "Where are we gonna meet you, anyway?"

Yuuka was somewhat hesitant in replying, though after a few moments of exchanging glances with the eager night sparrow, she smiled agreeably. "I gave Koakuma all of my instructions to ensure she would oversee the process, but I suppose you can know just in case some misfortune befalls her." She pointed the end tip of her massive umbrella directly downward at the ground, tapping her heel twice into the soil. "Our meeting place is Chireiden, Palace of the Earth Spirits. There, specifically from one of the mistress's pet ravens, is where we shall find some of the technology needed to construct our weapon. The way there has been cleared this evening after one of my friends snuck fried beans into all of the onis' sake, so we should have no trouble reaching the palace in the underground city and acquiring the nuclear fusion technology found there."

"Great!" Mystia exclaimed, beaming with confidence. She turned to face the end of the road again, looking behind her shoulder at the older youkai lady briefly. "I guess I'll catch up with you later then?"

Yuuka nodded with a quiet smile, somewhat floating within a reverie. "Best of luck to you, Mystia. Feel free to contact me at any point if you run into trouble. And remember, you are doing this not only for your sake and my sake, but for the sake of all Gensokyo as well."

Mystia grinned while giving Yuuka a thumbs-up sign. She then turned back toward the road and let her wings flap freely, prepared to launch herself into the sky. "Don't worry; I've got no intention of failing or screwing this up. You can count on me!" Questions such as how she would find Nitori, how to subdue her, where to go to reach the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and how to avoid possible extermination by a youkai hunter had no place in the young sparrow's mind at that moment, and she quickly flushed them away as they turned up. She was far too preoccupied with the utopia that would await her in a few hours if all went according to plan, and she quickly assured herself that she could figure her way through those issues if and when they would turn up. The more important subject in her mind was staying loyal to Yuuka and doing her absolute best to carry out her part of the project, and this would remain in her active thoughts for nearly her entire flight toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Yuuka was left to walk the Road of Reconsideration alone in the night, although her sunny smile erased any sense of loneliness that might have been expected from such a scene. Suicide was the farthest thought from her mind in that moment, and she continued daydreaming about an optimistic, bright future that would come the next day.

Without even realizing it, the image of Mystia as a "mommy" taking care of the sparrow eggs as she had mentioned visualized again within the elderly youkai's mind, and she twirled her umbrella merrily with every step while thinking about it. Halfway through the journey down the road into the Forest of Magic, Yuuka realized that she had subconsciously added herself into the mental image in place of Mystia, and she blushed with slight silliness over the revelation. Still, she made no attempt to correct the picture, and instead was quite content to let the visual of "Mommy Yuuka" stay central in her mind for the rest of the walk.

* * *

><p>Youmu was hardly out of her element being surrounded by flora as she was, but her mind had nonetheless been racing at lightning speed for the last hour or so. Being captured by a dangerous flower youkai and a carefree and treacherous demon girl wasn't the scariest thing she had ever encountered in her half-life (that honor went to the trial of guts with Yuyuko through the ghostly bamboo forest), but it certainly ranked up there. She sighed with a small sense of contentment as she gazed downward at her ghost mistress sitting in her lap. Yuyuko had been resting quietly for the past hour and a half, and this meant she wasn't currently teasing her servant to no end about anything currently on her mind. Youmu groaned as she imagined the endless quips and jokes her now one-armed mistress would make at this time were she conscious; most likely some horrendous pun about "giving her a hand" with the restricting vines would be repeated ad nauseam.<p>

She turned her attention toward the only other resident of the building whom she could see. Similarly to Yuyuko, Koakuma was calmly and quietly curled up in a chair, though she was reading from a book with a bright red cover instead of sleeping. Every five minutes or so she would glance toward the bound ghost girls in order to make sure that they were still in the same place and not trying to struggle toward escaping. When she turned her glance toward Youmu this time, she smiled in a friendly manner as she noticed the gardener looking back at her. "Yes? Is there anything I can do for you at the moment, Youmu? Are you hungry or thirsty or anything?"

Yuyuko groaned in her sleep at the word "hungry", but Youmu shook her head flatly. "Nothing at all," she declined. "Do you know when we'll to be set free, or when Yuuka will return, or when, well, _anything_ involving us will next happen?"

Koakuma shrugged casually, not too interested in the question. "Sorry, kid, but your guess is as good as mine. I just know the procedure that Yuuka-sama asked me to follow, and none of it involves you much further beyond watching over you guys until she returns." Her face brightened with a cheerful expression. "Oh, but that shouldn't be much longer! She should be coming back here very soon!"

Youmu raised her eyebrow. "Really? What is she going to do then?"

"I have no idea. However, you should know..." The little devil's smile widened into a smirk. "When outlining our activities, Yuuka didn't mention your names in any sort of activities after five o'clock this morning. So, I'm guessing that either she's going to set you free at that point, or..." She chuckled softly with a slightly menacing voice, glancing at both Youmu and Yuyuko with glittering red eyes. "She did say that her aim in this revolution is to topple all the powerful youkai from controlling Gensokyo and end their reign forever, and I think you two definitely qualify as powerful youkai!" Koakuma laughed to herself merrily as she picked up her book and set it on the store counter next to the potted sunflower with bittersweet vines. From that view, using the flickering lantern that also remained on the counter as a weak source of light, Youmu could see a white circumscribed hexagram, a shape that resembled a sinister eye glaring back at her, on the crimson cover, and she shivered slightly at the sight of it. "Being a weak little library assistant whom nobody knows well instead of someone like you certainly has its benefits!"

Youmu's heart leapt as she heard the devil voice her predictions, yet she also felt a small sense of relief as her captor had finally begun to talk seriously about her fate. Listening to everyone involved, especially her Lady Yuyuko, chat casually and joke around during such a dangerous situation was quite disconcerting to the serious young girl, and she had felt far too flustered to concentrate on finding a way out of the situation. Now, however, Yuyuko was sleeping peacefully in her servant's arms, her chest rising and falling in a gentle rhythm. After a few moments of careful thought about her predicament and another glance around the room, Youmu's face lit up with inspiration. It was time for the mistress of swords to make her move.

"Um, pardon me, Miss Koakuma," she began in what she hoped was an innocent and polite tone of voice, "but actually, I _am_ feeling kind of thirsty. Would there happen to be any more of that tea Miss Yuuka prepared for us earlier this evening? My throat's just a bit dry, and I'm guessing that Lady Yuyuko will be feeling the same way when she awakens."

Koakuma closed her book, keeping it laying flat on the counter, and smiled amiably. "Oh, sure! I know Yuuka left the teapot in the kitchen, and I'll bet there's a little bit left I can reheat for you right now!" She hopped out of her chair again and began to saunter toward one of the doors in the back of the room. Brazenly pushing past a sign on the door labeled "Employee Only", she began to enter a dark room Youmu could only assume was Rinnosuke's kitchen. Before she could disappear into the other room, however, she smirked confidently at the entangled half-ghost. "I'm sure a samurai of your caliber in terms of honor and valor would never even _dare_ to attempt it, but still, please don't get any silly ideas about breaking loose while I'm gone." She winked cutely, pointing toward the cheerful sunflower. "The hills, no, _flowers_ have eyes, you know!" With a quick swish of her black skirt and a final giggle, she left the dimly-lit main room and left Youmu alone in what seemed to be a room devoid of other conscious beings.

But Youmu knew better than that. Looks could be deceiving, and she had a gut feeling that she wasn't alone at that moment, aside from being in the company of her napping mistress. She waited silently as Koakuma disappeared from view and shut the door behind her, and after a few moments had passed beyond that, she opened her mouth and whispered loudly to address the entire room. "All right, Mr. Rinnosuke. I've sent her off, so the coast is clear. You can come out into the open now."

Youmu's proposition was first met with complete silence aside from a gentle, satisfied hum from the sleeping Yuyuko. After several tense moments of nothing, however, she heard a very soft rustling sound emanating from behind the sales counter. Accompanied by a low groan, a semi-masculine voice spoke up from the same location. "I was beginning to think you'd never say that, Miss Youmu."

The half-ghost's eyes lit up with slight surprise, but she smiled to herself with the proud feeling of having proven her assumption correct. "So you've been there this entire time, ever since I left the shop this evening?"

Rinnosuke's reply was both uneasy and filled with hesitation. "Well, you _could_ say that... but it's actually been a bit longer than that. Miss Yuuka came in to hold me hostage and take over Kourindou early yesterday morning, but she ordered me to continue working as if nothing was wrong throughout the day. That was also when she bought some of Yuyuko's stationery—she insisted on paying like an upstanding citizen instead of simply taking it—so that she and her group could write the death threat note, by the way. Of course, Yuuka assured me that I had to act like nothing was out of the ordinary and act as though I suspected Yuyuko, or else she threatened to strangle me to the point of death, and—"

"Look, I'd be interested to hear the full story in a bit," Youmu said hurriedly, "but Koakuma is definitely not going to stay in the kitchen forever. Can you come over here and give me a hand with these bittersweet vines?"

The shopkeeper laughed dryly, still out of sight behind the counter. "Believe me, I'd love to do that. There's just a small problem; I happen to be rooted to the spot with the same vines! How else would you expect she'd keep me where she wants me without staying here the whole time?"

Youmu sighed with frustration, sinking back into her chair in defeat. As she listened in the brief silence to Yuyuko, the beloved mistress she had always served with all her ability until that day, making a blissful, bubbly sound in the middle of her dream, her face contorted into an expression of great concentration. "C'mon, Youmu,"she very quietly yelled to herself, "there has to be a way to get out of this! Lady Yuyuko is relying on me to find a way out of the dilemma, and I can't let her down!" As the half-ghost body of her began bobbing up and down in a frantic pace above her to match her emotion, she carefully scanned the entire room and its myriad of contents in hopes of finding something of use. Just like with the object itself, her eyes became illuminated in hope as they fell upon the weak, sputtering lantern barely producing more light than a failed campfire, placed next to the sunflower. "Maybe… Do you think we could somehow tip over the lantern and burn the bittersweet vines? I'd bet they'd relent if we did that."

Rinnosuke shrugged apologetically, shaking his head. "Don't count on that working. If that's my personal lantern Yuuka has set up, and I'm pretty sure it is, it's made of thick, strong plastic that won't shatter and let the flames free even if it falls over."

Youmu groaned, and her eyes continued to dart around the dark room in hopes of finding another hope of escape in the vast room. "Mr. Rinnosuke, isn't there anything you use here for security or defense? There's got to be at least one useful item in these piles of junk!"

"_Wares_," Rinnosuke corrected. "But yes, I imagine you could use many of my items as weapons of some sort. I'm not sure how you'd be able to even access them when you're tied to a chair, though."

Youmu smiled knowingly, eyeing a rather sharp-looking steak knife on one of the back shelves in the room. "Let's just see about that. I'm not about to let Lady Yuyuko and myself be deterred by something as insignificant as a _rocking chair_!" With a strained groan, she leaned forward as far as she could against the unyielding bittersweet that was lashed around her middle, pushing the chair forward on its pivoting rockers in the process. She continued pushing forward with all of her strength and energy, but neither the vines nor the entire chair compromised, staying sturdy as could be. Even with her feet planted firmly on the floor, Youmu couldn't stand up with the weight of the chair and her mistress combined, and every one of her multiple attempts to rise from a sitting position proved fruitless. At last, she sat back in the chair again, breathing heavily with a look of despair upon her face. "Forget it. This is hopeless."

Rinnosuke sighed for a moment, presumably pondering the quagmire behind the counter himself. "Well then, guess we'll have to try Plan B," he said encouragingly. "I mean, I'd be very surprised if someone as strong and capable as you couldn't find a solution to a problem like this one. I presume Miss Yuyuko is expecting that you'll be able to escape the situation by yourself since she went to sleep; either that, or she's as narcoleptic as Miss Yukari."

The spirit half of Youmu bobbed enthusiastically and instinctively at the compliment, although Youmu herself seemed discouraged. As she heard a particularly loud snore resound from Yuyuko like the lead French horn of a symphony orchestra, she shuddered and groaned. "Easy for you to say," she replied bitterly. "You don't have a supreme mistress who holds such extremely high expectations in you and whom you devote your life to pleasing, even though all she likes to do is tease you endlessly." Her voice trailed off, her cheeks growing a deep blush of shame as she glanced downward at the sleeping ghost in her arms. "I... I mean..."

"You...mu," a quiet voice whose owner was talking in her sleep murmured. "Youmuuuu, where are you?"

From Youmu's current perspective, there was no childish, silly, gluttonous, obnoxious ghost in sight; only an earnest, cheerful, curious girl with rosy hair and heart. Her mistress was someone who placed her complete trust and faith in her, and it was as if Youmu had used the day's incident of seeing the note as an excuse to shatter the bond of trust. "My god." As she mulled over the events, she realized with despondency that she had lost faith in her mistress far too quickly and easily than what would be reasonable, and it had been her insubordination that had led Yuyuko to seek her out in the first place and end up captured. It was her life's mission to protect Lady Yuyuko under all circumstances, especially when a dangerous threat was lurking in Gensokyo, and she had utterly failed this in her actions.

Rinnosuke grimaced nervously, adjusting his glasses with one motion. He turned his line of vision downward to the unyielding bittersweet wrapped tightly around his waist and legs, and then turned back toward the kitchen door he had opened tens of thousands of times in the past for almost every meal of his life. Never before had the ordinary, wooden panel seemed so imposing as in that moment; he had a gut sense that if it opened to let Koakuma back in before he or Youmu could struggle free from their binds, they would never be released again from Yuuka's grasp. "Um, Miss Youmu? Sorry, but... do you think you can focus on freeing us and think about that stuff later?"

No reply came from the half-phantom other than an exasperated sigh.

However, it was the full ghost who took the opportunity to speak at that moment, albeit still within her state of sleep. "Youmu!" Her voice, while still monotone and steady, reflected a certain genuine enthusiasm that brought a gentle grin to her lips. "Youmu, fly!"

"Eh?" Instinctively, Youmu's head shot up in inquiry as she heard her name being called.

"Youmu, fly! The sky awaits!"

Yuyuko's ghost gardener smiled nostalgically as she saw her mistress's expression of pure cheer and enthusiasm. "Fly, huh, Lady Yuyuko? I'd love to, if only I could."

"You can do it! We've just got to soar over the blaze!"

Youmu sighed in general contemplation as she heard Yuyuko continue to ramble about flying into the sky. _It's things like that which make Lady Yuyuko such a cute and lovable girl_, she thought to herself. _Even though she can be irritating with her whole love for food and carefree teasing, she's still a kind mistress. I... I should have never lost faith in her_. "I hope you can forgive me at some point for making such a horrible mistake tonight, Lady Yuyuko."

"Youmu, aren't you going to ignite the inferno and fly into the sky?" Yuyuko's question was clear and direct, almost as if she were asking her servant from her sleep in hopes of getting a response. In fact, her "proposition" seemed so purposeful to Youmu that the gardener found herself instinctively taking a look around the room for anything that could possibly resemble a fire. The lantern, of course, was one of the few immediately obvious objects of this sort, but Youmu quickly dismissed it from her mind as she remembered what Rinnosuke had said a few minutes ago regarding it.

"Lady Yuyuko, I'm sorry, but I can't exactly light a fire when I'm tied up liked this. Is there some way I could do it in this state?" She stopped, a dry grin spreading across her mouth as she laughed somewhat ironically. "Although, I guess it might be better to ask myself just why in the Former Hell am I listening to you sleep-talk?"

Yuyuko's unconscious voice quickly died down after that point, almost as if she could perceive the shame from Youmu's rebuke. Her body instinctively slumped downward back into Youmu's arms, and within moments it had returned to breathing softly and lightly.

Finally, as Youmu began to stare at the weak, helpless, innocent ghost girl in her arms, her face brightened. The innate sense of protectiveness she usually felt regarding her mistress, which had been lost in the betrayal of the night, had finally returned with almost an electric surge through her body. She nearly cried out in surprise as her fists instinctively curled and her blood grew hot; the sudden change in her body and emotions had commenced almost as suddenly as a Hawaiian rainstorm. Now that it was finally back and raging in full force, however, Youmu took no time to wipe the smile off her face and replace it with a rock-solid, neutral expression that seemed to dare Koakuma to mess with her or Yuyuko and see the unpleasant consequences that would result. She was no longer the bitter, straight-laced, annoyed servant of a gluttonous, childish ghost; instead, she was Youmu Konpaku, the half-phantom mistress of swords and guardian of Yuyuko Saigyouji, the beautiful, elegant, spectral princess of Hakugyokurou.

"Rinnosuke," she spoke calmly yet purposely, "I am going to free Lady Yuyuko, you, and myself from this grip now. And I shall punish our young devil captor for her deed."

"Really? Th-that's wonderful!" The white haired shopkeeper smiled hopefully from his place behind the counter, yet he also bore a look of slight nervousness over the new underlying tone of purpose and power in Youmu's voice. "But how are you going to do that?"

Youmu chuckled softly, carrying a debonair and all-knowing sense about her that was usually reserved for one such as her mistress's companion Yukari. "You're going to help me."

"Me? S-sorry, Miss Youmu, but as I said, I'm tied up at the moment, and-"

"Slam your body against the counter you're leaning against." Youmu had the proud smile of a person about to explain her ingenious method of solving a perplexing problem. She pointed to the mysterious scarlet book that Koakuma had left sitting about on the shop counter. "Lady Yuyuko's comments about starting a fire, while seemingly irrelevant, gave me a burst of inspiration. I just realized why Miss Koakuma's book was so intriguing to me while she was reading it; I've seen it before! Miss Patchouli Knowledge used a spell book just like it, with the same image on the cover, as an elemental magic source and weapon in her battles. Makes sense that her familiar would bring in what I assume is a fire-type grimoire, since Miss Patchouli is always concerned with finding what she believes is her opponent's weakness. She said before that we spirits are weak to flames and fire, so Miss Koakuma must think she can guard against us with a fiery grimoire.

"So, then, we shall use that logic, too!" She wriggled against the great constricting vines with a triumphant grin. "According to her Chinese elements, fire burns wood. I've seen in my past battles that these grimoires can automatically activate if they're agitated or encounter significant force, so to get rid of these bittersweet plants..."

"Are you insane?!" Rinnosuke pinched the ridge of his nose in frustration. "Besides the fact that I don't want my shop burning down, this is _Yuuka freaking Kazami's _plant you're talking about igniting! If she catches us, which I can definitely see happening after Koakuma said she'd be back soon... I don't think I need to fill in the blank on what would happen!"

"All the more reason to do it right now," Youmu answered curtly. "If we don't escape, we may be at her mercy for the rest of our lives, and, from what I've heard, that could be only a few hours or even minutes. Better to have a fighting chance of getting out of here alive than to just lay down and die without cause, I'd say." She grinned humorlessly at Rinnosuke, even though he was still behind the counter and couldn't see her at all. "Unless you want to let Yuuka do as she pleases and send us all to our last reward, and I'll let her beat me up into a bloody mess of flesh and spirit before she can come close to doing that to Lady Yuyuko. Now, if you don't want _me_ to do that to you as soon as I get out of here, _kindly_ _slam your body against the counter_."

A nervous chuckle erupted from the shopkeeper, who was intently trying to determine whether the flower youkai or half-phantom samurai was the more intimidating girl of the evening. "Heh, n-n-no need to kill me here. If you're sure about this..."

"Believe me, I am. We're only likely to get one chance at this anyway, since the loud noise will definitely alert Koakuma to what we're doing. Make it good, Kourin."

"Well then... Dragon help me." Taking a deep breath of air, he leaned his upper body backward in a pivot from the rooted position. After a transitional moment that seemed as though it would mark a passing from life to assured death, or perhaps vice versa, he crashed the side of his shoulder into the wooden counter as fast and as forcefully as he could.

Like a kitten's tongue into an endless bowl of cream, the tiny towers of flame that erupted from the grimoire when it fell onto the floor and opened began to hungrily lap up all the wood they encountered. Thick, black curls of smoke began to erupt from the bright, hot blaze, and Rinnosuke began to cough as soon as he recovered from the mighty slam. Youmu, however, was hardly interested in the fire she had indirectly caused, and she kept her vision trained on the countertop and its remaining contents instead. Rinnosuke's hard shove had also managed to push the more heavily-weighted pot of vines and sunflower off balance, where it proceeded to slowly teeter back and forth on the very edge of the counter. She watched intently with silent anticipation as the planter seemingly sat on the border of smashing and staying steady, or perhaps the border between Youmu's free and forever captured destinies.

Only a few seconds had passed after the loud thump that had resounded in Kourindou from Rinnosuke's efforts when the door to the kitchen slammed open again, revealing a wide-eyed Koakuma holding a teapot in her right hand. "What the hell are you doing?!" Her question required no answer, however, as she saw the scene of a magical fire starting on the shop floor and the flowerpot filled with precious vines tipping precariously above it. "No... you're not gonna make me fail my duties to Yuuka-sama... No way..." As soon as her reflexes returned and freed her from her immobility over witnessing the scene, she broke out into a full, breakneck sprint toward the flowerpot in hopes of steadying it before it was too late.

However, this outcome would be destiny's decision alone, for Koakuma could not possibly reach the plant before it would stop tipping. Even though it only took a few seconds at most for the physics of the pot to decide whether it would tip over or remain standing, it was as if time had slowed down to a fraction of its usual rate. Youmu and Koakuma both stared, enraptured, at the simple piece of clay pottery whose fate literally hung in the balance, and every oscillation brought either a sense of hope or horror to each girl depending on its direction. While Rinnosuke couldn't watch the pot from his position and therefore wasn't spellbound by its gentle swaying, he felt his hair stand on end as the atmosphere seemingly dropped in temperature into a chillingly frigid climate.

At last, after several moments of tension had passed, it was as if the Yama had finally made her definitive judgment on the pot. The verdict was _black_.

Koakuma, who had finally lost her immobility upon seeing the teetering pot fall to the ground, rushed at rapid speed to the side of the spreading fire. The pot, shattering with an almost melodic smash into an assortment of hundreds of clay shards, was beyond saving by that moment. Before she could reach the soil-covered roots of the bittersweet vines, the ends began to hold flames on themselves like a biological menorah. Without thinking further, she doused the contents of the teapot in her hand onto the fiery, searing blaze. Unfortunately for her, however, the steaming, herbal tea that splashed onto the vines did little to stop the rapid spread of flames. Even when she let the teapot tumble on the ground as she got onto her hands and knees, frantically trying to smother the flames on the vines, she found all her efforts futile.

"I... I failed..." Seeing the vines flopping downward uselessly, she felt a lump in her throat grow and a hot, shameful blush spread across her cheeks, nearly extending to the bat wings growing from the sides of her head. Her hands begin to gently shake and quiver, and she fought fiercely to suppress a rush of warm, saline tears from flowing out of her eyes and rubbing salt in her emotional wound.

Youmu, on the other hand, felt the rush of adrenaline within her blood rise to almost newfound levels. At the moment when the roots caught a shower of sparks, she wasted no time in pushing against the constricting vines binding herself and Yuyuko to the chair. The bittersweet, which naturally would hold tight to whatever it wrapped around, now held a lifeless, strengthless grip on her that was easily tossed aside. Rising out of the rocking chair and gently placing the still-sleeping Yuyuko on the seat, Youmu picked up the vines that now lay disconnected from their roots and forcefully ripped them into floral shreds.

"No!" Koakuma bellowed, slowly and unsteadily rising onto her shaking knees. Her eyes were still red from her efforts to avoid showing tears, but they also began to reflect a deep, suppressed rage that was quickly beginning to surface in her emotions. As she balled her hands into fists so tight that her nails almost punctured her own skin, she bore a glare that would likely render a crying baby mute for the rest of his or her life. "Yuuka-sama told me to guard you two and keep you down until she returns, and I'm not going to let her down. You'd better back down right now, or _I'm going to make you bleed!_"

"Just try." Youmu steeled herself and assumed a fighting stance. She felt a slight sense of vulnerability and weakness as she remembered she had no swords on hand, but she bravely stood in the face of the livid devil with unflinching composure. "I failed to protect my mistress once, and I _won't_ let her down. Even without any swords, I'll cut you open if you try to stop me."

Koakuma smirked in derision, sneering as she advanced toward Youmu threateningly. "You think I'm afraid of _you_? The girl who only spouts about how 'the things that can't be cut by her oh-so-almighty sword are next to none' all day? You don't have your swords now, and even if you did, 'scared' is the last thing I'd feel in front of such a pipsqueak as you!"

"Taunt me if you must. You're still going to bow down in the name of Hakugyokurou in just a few minutes."

The devil scoffed, brandishing her razor-sharp nails mere inches from the samurai's face. "Gotta stay absolutely loyal to the one you betrayed tonight, huh? You're pathetic, Youmu. You screwed up keeping your loyalty to your mistress once. In this field, you don't get second chances. You're a traitor now, regardless of how much Yuyuko may have egged you on, and all you ought to do now is go the way traitors go."

Youmu remained quiet, composed, and steady. "You mean seppuku? Yes, I've considered that. If it is Lady Yuyuko's will, I shall comply. But I _will not_ allow you to bring any harm to her as long as I still stand! You shall pay the price of your own treason."

Koakuma smiled widely and coldly, seemingly sharing a secret with herself. "Sorry, you're mistaken; I've never committed any betrayal toward my mistress, especially not tonight. You don't have a companion in treachery here with you; you are all alone. Now, allow me to show you how true loyalty to one's master looks like in action!" She leapt forward with blinding speed, her nails stretched out and ready to bury themselves into what she believed was traitorous flesh.

* * *

><p>"Home sweet home, huh?" Suika murmured. She folded her arms behind her head and glanced upward to get the full extent of the gigantic Scarlet Devil Mansion. Even from outside the tall brick wall that surrounded it, the short oni had no problem viewing the imposing edifice. The clock tower that rose above all other parts of the building glowed with a seemingly unnatural light from the moon, and its illuminated face told all of Gensokyo that it was ten minutes to four in the morning. Peering more intently at the face of the clock tower, Suika's eyes widened as she saw what appeared to her as a shadowy silhouette of a humanoid figure. The figure seemed to be calmly standing in front of the glowing clock face, although it was impossible to be sure of who it was or why she was there. When Suika rubbed her eyes and looked again at the clock face, however, it was as if the figure had vanished completely out of sight, leaving the oni to ponder whether she had actually even seen anything to begin with. Curious about if her friend had seen the figure as well, she glanced to her side toward the mansion's young mistress, who seemed to be just as fixated on the building as she herself had been. Unfortunately for Suika, however, she was far more enraptured in her own wonders than interested in the mystery above.<p>

"Home," Flandre repeated to herself absentmindedly. She deliberated the word carefully, almost as if she was a juryman in a case that would decide her own fate. "Is this red brick prison really my home?"

Suika shook her head impatiently. "Didn't mean that philosophically, Flan. I was just saying—"

"No," Flandre interrupted, although her interjection seemed more directed toward her own line of thought rather than Suika's. "You're right. It _is_ home. I have a deed with my name on it to prove it."

Suika sighed, folding her arms. At this rate, asking the vampire about the mysterious figure in front of the clock face would be rather pointless, she decided. "…Yeah. So are you ready to go bust the place up and find your sister?"

The vampire glanced directly at the oni for once with apprehension, having escaped from her reverie. "Are you sure now's the best time to be doing this? I mean, I know that Remi's going to start up a manhunt for me in the morning if we don't do anything now, but still... I'd be a liar if I told you I'm excited about this."

The oni replied with a rather dark, cynical laugh. "Hope ya don't mind me saying it, but you're a strange one, Flan. I'da thought you'd be jumping up and down now that you're finally gonna be free from the basement for good!"

Flandre glanced sideways to avoid meeting the oni's direct stare. "Well, I'm kind of excited, I guess. I mean, I feel like I'll die if I have to go back into that locked room for all eternity, and Gensokyo seems like an amazing place to live in from what I've seen so far. It's just..."

"Now that you're right here, you're having second thoughts about puttin' your big sis in her place, right?" Suika suggested, leaning against the brick gate with a wink and easygoing smile.

Flandre's eyes widened and her head quickly nodded, greatly startled to hear her own thoughts coming out of the oni's sake-scented mouth. "I guess that's it. Remi's always told me about how I'm such a good little sister, the best one she could ever wish for, for being so understanding and coping with my situation as I do. I know that I should be enraged for being unrightfully locked away by her, and I do want to escape from the basement, but..." She hesitated in her sentence, eyes drifting toward the tower of the mansion holding the mistress's bedroom. "There's just some part of me that wants to stay a good little sister and hear her words of praise some more."

Suika nodded understandingly, being as naturally experienced as a bartender with both alcohol and helping personal problems. "I can see where you're comin' from; always feels nice when Reimu praises me for battling awesomely or gettin' her some donations or not puking on the floor when I get home at night. And besides, you take out all the order and law of society that comes from respecting your place in the world, and what do you got? An assorted bunch of disgruntled youkai running wild, that's what. Kinda like Gensokyo, actually!" She grinned casually, but then let her mouth bear a more serious expression. "But still, you oughta consider the other side of this. You said your pal Meiling is still in there attacking that Scarlet Succubus of a sister as a diversion, right? You sure she'll be okay in there by herself?"

It was as if a lead weight dropped into Flandre's stomach the moment she heard the gatekeeper's name spoken and was reminded of what Meiling was currently doing. Visions of the unspeakably terrible acts a vengeful Remilia could be subjecting her to danced into the vampire's conscious mind, and she shuddered as if inside a deep freeze. As she turned to glance at the Scarlet Devil Mansion again, she thought she heard the Chinese girl's distinctive scream emanating from the hallways even while there was nothing but silence.

"How could I have done this?" Flandre spoke aloud, staring at Suika with a look of supreme guilt and shame. "Why would I ever agree to leave Meiling to be tortured by Remilia just so I could escape myself? What kind of twisted, selfish _monster_ would do something like that?!" Her expression suddenly morphed into one of grim conclusiveness, and she sat down and folded her crystal wings downward. "Ah. The same kind that ought to be locked up in the basement for 500 years. I get it now." No tears began to stain her cheeks after her realization, but her crestfallen look as she hugged her knees to her chest served the same purpose of displaying her mood. "Leaving your best friend for torture and maybe death is far worse than tricking your little sister into staying out of the way in the basement."

Suika laughed heartily, placing a strong hand on Flandre's shoulder. "Now, now, there's no sense beating yourself up over it; besides, if someone like you did that literally, I can guess the end result would be pretty butt-ugly!" She continued laughing as she reached toward her belt to grab her sake gourd out of habit, groaning when her hand connected with air instead of alcohol. "Anyway, think of it this way: if China made this plan and agreed to do it with you, sounds like she loves and cares about you a lot, am I right?"

"Yeah, you're right," Flandre mumbled, keeping her eyes trained on her shoes.

"Well, instead of feeling all glum for following the plan, why don't you show China your own love toward her by making a plan of your own?"

Flandre tilted her head upward in intrigue. "My own plan?"

"Yeah!" Suika grinned, pointing toward the mansion. "What do you say we go in and confront your sister to save Meiling? That way you'll feel less guilty about attacking her to get your freedom here."

Flandre stood up again, brushing the dust off the front of her skirt. It only took her a moment to deliberate over Suika's proposition before she pulled out the mythical Laevatein weapon from behind her back, nodding vigorously and determinedly. "As long as I have a friend to watch my back so I won't fail, I'll do that."

"That's the spirit!" Suika exclaimed, excitedly slapping Flandre on the back (but not with the same strength that would move a mountain). "And don't you worry about needing support or anything like that. I said I'd stick with you for this when you helped me out of that hangover, and by God, that's just what I'm gonna do. No crazy evil vampire ladies gonna scare me outta fulfilling a promise like that to a friend!"

Flandre grinned gratefully, her wings perking up in happiness again. She opened her mouth as if to say a word of thanks, but then decided against it and simply hurled herself at the oni's waist. Suika let out a small gasp of surprise as she saw Flandre's arms wrapping around her body in a tight embrace. After a moment, however, she smiled compassionately and pulled the vampire close to her chest to reciprocate the hug.

Even though the night of her 500th birthday had so far been a terrible, trying ordeal for Flandre with the obliteration of the sisterly relationship between her and Remilia, she couldn't help but feel her face flush with joy at that moment. It had been an eternity since the last time another living, breathing being had given her a hug as a friend; Meiling was the only one she could recall ever doing this sincerely in the past. Although Flandre had given dozens of hugs to the plush teddy bears that lined her basement room, the feeling of being embraced in return was an entirely new sensation for the vampire. For the second time that night she felt a surge of warmth and comfort in her heart, and she sighed in contentment.

After a few moments that seemed to stretch toward infinity, Flandre released her grasp on the oni and blushed sheepishly, embarrassed about hugging another girl so suddenly and without warning. "Heh, s-sorry about that," she said, her grin of delight contracting into a smaller, cuter smile.

"Eh, no worries," Suika said casually. "Nice to hug someone every once in a while, you know? Reimu's always scared I'm gonna be too drunk to control myself if I try to hug her; she thinks I'm either gonna accidentally break her back in two or start makin' out with her or something. What a loon!" She giggled nostalgically, amusement crossing her eyes as she visualized the shrine maiden saying just that in the past. After a moment of exchanging a laugh with Flandre, however, she turned toward the gate in the wall with a serious and determined look. "Well, anyway, now that we've gotten all of that out of our systems, how 'bout we go and crash this vampire party?"

With Flandre's earnest nodding approval, Suika picked up the leaden yellow sphere dangling from her left wrist on a chain and stood directly in front of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gate. Tossing the weight up and down in one hand a few times for good measure, she then swung her left arm toward the gate with incredible force and speed. The lead sphere acted as an absurdly powerful wrecking ball toward the metal bars on the gate, striking with an explosion of sparks and a deafening clang that resounded for miles around. The bars that played victim to this attack had less than a snowball's chance in the atomic Former Hell; the side ones distorted greatly to form a gaping hole, and some of the middle ones even flew clear off their bases and clattered against the wall of the mansion itself.

"There we go!" Suika said happily, letting the lead weight hang loosely around her wrist again. "Let's go, Flan!"

Flandre briefly stared at the splintered and shattered gate with a blank expression before turning toward the oni passing through it. "Umm, Suika? I... I don't think that gate was locked."

"Heh, really?" Suika laughed sheepishly as she glanced back at the mangled pile of metal bars that lay on the ground next to the brick wall. In all of the mess that resembled a demolished jungle gym, there was nothing that resembled a lock of any sort. "Guess not. Well, gotta say 'hi' somehow, right? I'm sure that ol' vampire won't mind me paying her back in sake."

Flandre opened her mouth to respond, but before she could do so, a giggle interrupted her and cast her into complete silence. The rich, dulcet, yet high-pitched and somewhat childish tone of laughter was quite soft, but it ominously echoed all throughout the otherwise silent courtyard. Both the oni and young vampire looked at each other inquisitively and then took a glance all around each other in hopes of finding the sound's source. Although they both failed to locate anything in this manner, the mysterious laughter would not remain a mystery for long.

First Flandre with a start and then Suika with a gasp caught sight of the silhouette of an enormous bat flapping its wings against the glowing face of the clock tower. The resounding giggling began to get louder and more gleeful as the bat appeared to descend downward, and it reached its apex in delight and volume upon reaching the ground in the gap of the gate wall. At that point, it turned with glittering crimson eyes, a gaping maw of luminous fangs, and widespread, leathery wings toward Flandre, continuing to chuckle with a charming, feminine voice. Although the young vampire could have easily deduced the identity of this bat from all of these distinguishing physical features, it was the animal's laughter that most cemented who she was. The haunting, familiar laugh struck dread and panic within Flandre's heart, and she turned away to avoid glancing at the humanoid form the bat would inevitably transform into.

Indeed, after a quick flash of utterly radiant light that made Suika glance away as well, the creature that remained carried all of the distinguishing traits of the bat: its eyes, fangs, and wings. These, however, were all appropriately placed on the Scarlet Devil's body, certifying her as the one and only mistress of the crimson mansion.

"Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Remilia greeted, her rich and melodious voice resounding with utterly false friendliness. "It's a great pleasure for us to host guests, even when the night is so late. May I interest you two ladies in a cup of tea, perhaps?"

"Remi..." Flandre murmured to herself, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Even as she felt the girl's cold smirk and piercing stare freeze her blood, she couldn't help but feel a small feeling of warmth from being next to her big sister again.

Remilia quickly glanced at the area around the two girls with curious eyes, nodding to herself as her gaze returned to Flandre. "Say, Sakuya didn't escort you here, did she? Did either of you happen to encounter her as you entered the premise? It would be simply grand if she were here, for she could provide us with some delicious cake to supplement the tea!"

"Nope! And you can cut the bullshit already," Suika snapped with a glare. "Flan here told me all about how she found out a little fact tonight. Apparently you've been keeping her locked in that basement while you've been sippin' brandy or whatever in luxury all these years, huh?" She grabbed the folded paper that had practically become infamous over the course of the night from her belt and brandished it in Remilia's direction. "And now she's got proof that you've been doin' it against the terms of your house deed!"

"Ah well, that's a shame." Remilia casually swatted her hand as if to dismiss the paper, and instead focused her attention on the two "guests" who stood before her. "My, has Flandre actually made a friend tonight, though? Wow! Isn't that a lovely surprise!"

Flandre's cheeks blushed, although the tint against her otherwise pale skin was barely rosy. She turned her head down in shame, feeling the stinging truth of Remilia's words about how making a friend was a very rare occasion for her.

Suika, however, spread a smirk across her lips to counter Remilia's. "Yeah, I bet you'd think that's a surprise!"

"Really? And why is that?" Remilia inquired.

"'Cause," Suika explained with a triumphant grin, "making friends is something you've got almost no experience in, am I right? I mean, I know I'm not number one in popularity around here, but even so, I'm not a heartless bitch who only cares about 'charisma' and doesn't give a crap about raising her little sister right. Somehow I don't reckon that kind of attitude's gonna net you many friends."

Remilia pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. Even though anger was naturally building up inside of her from the oni's insult, she took a quick deep breath and remained calm in composure. "Oh? And _you_, a random drunken demon who has only known my sister for likely a couple of hours at most, feel you know better about the right way to control a happy, energetic, innocent, weapon of mass destruction?" She laughed humorlessly. "Well, Dr. Spock, by all means, educate me about the correct method of child raising!"

Suika put a confident hand on Flandre's shoulder, causing the younger vampire to look up with a weak smile. "The way I see it, you've got a real cutie for a younger sister. Sure, she's been saddled with a horrifyingly destructive power, but she's still a nice, sensitive kid. Now, maybe I don't know the full story about you two, but if you're supposed to be taking care of her in place of your father, shouldn't you be, I dunno... caring for her? Helping her to learn how to use the power and not go cuckoo with it, praising her when she does stuff well, comforting her when she's sad or angry, playing fun games with her, tucking her in at night, and all that jazz." Her brow furrowed into an angry glare aimed directly at Remilia, her fists clenched at her sides. "Yet instead, you just squirrel her away underground like a problem you sweep under the table. 'She's got so much power and can't handle it, so let's just throw her in the basement and act like she doesn't exist,' right? What the hell kind of big sister are you, anyway?!"

Remilia's cheeks turned pallid as she shrank under the oni's glare. Her mind quickly and frantically searched for any sort of charismatic, clever response with which to calmly counter Suika, but it was as if her mind had completely shut down. The only thing she could tangibly feel in her mind was a dark. gnawing sense of guilt that the claims against her were true and valid. As she diverted her vision from Suika to briefly glance at her younger sister's tearstained cheeks and despondent expression, her heart felt a sickening twinge of perhaps having made a horrible, shameful mistake years ago. Remilia instantly turned away from Flandre, unable to bear looking at her sister for more than a few seconds.

"Y-you have some nerve coming here at almost four in the morning, breaking down the gate, and trying to lecture me about how _you_ think _I_ should treat _my_ sister," Remilia spat, shaking a quivering fist in Suika's face and doing her best to maintain her composure. "Why, for this insolence, I ought to whisk you away and drain your vessels completely dry of blood as well!"

Suika smirked in bitter satisfaction, watching the vampire's calm attitude melt away. "Can't handle owning up to everything you've done, huh? Well if you're all ashamed and everything about it right now, maybe you shoulda reconsidered doing it in the first—"

"'As well?'" The interruption to Suika's loud, rough castigation was quite soft and nearly inaudible, yet both Suika and Remilia instantly turned toward Flandre as they heard the words escape her mouth. The young vampire still was staring downward at her feet, but her expression had transformed into one that was completely, eerily flat and neutral. Any remnants of tears on her cheeks had evaporated away, and her wings that had been drooping downward became ramrod straight.

"P-pardon me, Flan?" Whatever blood that remained in Remilia's face drained away at that moment. It didn't take an oarfish to sense that the atmosphere in the courtyard had suddenly become utterly chilling in that moment, and Remilia couldn't help but feel a strange sense of familiar nostalgia as this feeling of terror washed over her. It was from such moments and emotions as this, she reminded herself, that she had decided to send her sister into the basement in the first place.

"What did you mean when you said you would drain Suika's blood _as well_, Remi?"

"Heh, Flan, it was probably just a slip of the tongue or whatever, you know," Suika answered nervously with a gulp. The Bunbunmaru articles in the past about the Scarlet Devil Mansion's Dirty Little Secret committing horrible acts of violence with insane glee quickly ran through her mind at that moment. It had seemed impossible that Aya's stories would truly be about the cute little girl at the time that she rescued Suika from the hangover. Now, however, the Flandre that stood before her, the girl who menacingly brandished her Laevatein weapon, seemed to plausibly fit the tengu's terrifying descriptions.

"No." Flandre walked slowly, carefully placing the heel of each step directly against the toe of the previous one, until she stood mere centimeters away from her nervous, shaking sister. "Come to think of it, where did Meiling go, anyway? Last time I saw her, she was kicking you down to keep you from chasing after me. Do _you_ know what happened to her, Remi?" Her words tightened around Remilia's throat like a noose, sealing her immobile in her guilt over what she had done in the past hour.

"Flan... I'm sorry. Really, I am. I just—"

"Save it. If you've done what I think you've done, no words will help you." Flandre turned her gaze upward into her sister's eyes, and though her own eyes were colored scarlet just as Remilia's, hers seemed as cold and frosty as shards of glacial ice. "Well? Did you do it?"

"C'mon, Flan," Suika protested frantically. "Even if she did, beating her up over it's not gonna—"

"_Did you_," Flandre repeated icily, "suck Meiling's blood dry like a filthy little leech tonight?"

Remilia stood for a few more moments as she continued to meet Flandre's piercing gaze, shaking and quivering in fright all the while, before at last crumpling to the ground. Flandre smiled coldly as she watched her sister, a usually charismatic and composed mistress, try to hide her pitiful weeping behind one sleeve of her dress.

"Flan, what are you trying to do?" Suika inquired, looking back and forth between the frigid young vampire and her whimpering sister. "This isn't gonna help you stay out of the basement at all!"

Flandre snorted disdainfully. "Like I care. Frankly, I don't give a damn about living alongside this little brat anymore now that she's attacked Meiling like so. In fact..." She whipped her body around to face Suika and snatched the deed, which she was still carrying, out of the oni's fingers. Holding the precious document in her hands, Flandre crumpled it into a tiny ball of paper and casually threw it behind her shoulder, letting it disappear into the thick hedges along the tall gate wall. "If she wants to lock me in the basement, go ahead and let her try. It's going to be a bit difficult for a dead girl to do that, though."

Suika frowned, grabbing Flandre's arm in a firm grasp. "Look, Flan, knock it off," she said in an almost uncharacteristically stern tone of voice. "I said I'd help you get justice over being unrightfully locked away, not assist you in _murdering_ your sister. I'm not gonna let a friend of mine do some crap she'll regret."

"Oh yeah?" Flandre asked, ripping her arm away from Suika's strong hold with surprising strength. "What are you going to do? You're gonna lock me away, too? I told you: _I don't care_. We can deal with all that after we find Meiling and get her to safety, but before that happens, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure she's okay and has received proper justice." She marched past the oni and vampire without so much as glancing at her weeping sister before reaching the front door of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Using only one hand to ensure that the other kept a firm grip on Laevatein, she swung the mighty door open and took a glance inside. "Meiling! Are you in here? Are you okay?"

Fortunately for her, her cries did not echo on empty space within the foyer of the mansion. After only a few moments she heard the sound of plodding, unsteady footsteps from inside the mansion walking in her direction. As she peered more intently into the darkness within the entrance to the mansion, she squealed in a combination of relief and joy. There, half-walking and half-stumbling across the checkered floor of the main hall toward the door, was a bright red-haired, pale youkai in a green Chinese dress. Even from the several meters that separated her from Flandre, there was also a clearly visible wound along the base of the youkai's neck that resembled the aftermath of a sharp bite.

"Meiling!" Flandre exclaimed, her face beaming with delight. She ran as fast as she could to close the gap between her and her companion with arms spread wide, and Meiling attempted to do the same by slightly hastening her faltering pace. Unfortunately, this led to the pallid-faced youkai tripping and falling onto the floor halfway there, and she seemed to lack the strength to overcome the struggle of pulling her body upward again.

"...Meiling?" Flandre quickly reached the fallen gatekeeper's side and gazed at her with worry. "Are you all right? Did you get hurt? Did... did Remilia brutally punish you?"

"Flan..." Meiling murmured, glancing with a warm, weak smile at her vampire friend. She did not have a mirror handy, but from the vampire's increasingly concerned expression upon staring more intently, she guessed that her face was as white as a sheet after having lost much blood. "It's wonderful to see you again."

Flandre looked as though she was about to burst into tears from relief, but she took a deep breath to calm herself and carefully scanned over Meiling. As her eyes caught sight of the fang marks on her friend's shoulder, she sighed with disappointment. "I was hoping it wasn't true, but I guess Remilia really did bite one of her longest-working and best employees around. Disgusting!"

"N-no," Meiling murmured, quickly trying to formulate a lie in her mind just to appease her companion. "I was, um, uh... filing papers for Remi as punishment! And I... fell neck-first onto the stapler I was using and got this scar that way? Yeah, that's what happened!"

"It's okay," Flandre replied, shaking her head. "You don't need to defend her here. She's made her bed, and now she'll have to lie in it." She continued staring at Meiling intently, but her serious, grave look began to falter as a small grin started to spread across her lips. Noticing that such a smile was forming, she quickly began to focus on shutting it down, but this only made the grin grow wider. "As for you, however..."

Flandre grabbed Meiling by the collar, pulling her to a sitting-up position. Before the gatekeeper could respond with any sort of words at all about the current situation, she felt Flandre's face burrowing deep into her chest, her arms wrapped as tightly around her middle. "Don't scare me ever again like that, China!" Flandre scolded, her voice muffled and somewhat quivering from within Meiling's chest. "I never should have agreed to let you be the diversion!"

Meiling laughed quietly, calmly enjoying the sensation of hearing Flandre's voice and feeling her tight, loving embrace. _I guess playing and surviving that game of hide-and-seek from hell with Remilia earlier tonight was worth it in the end_, she thought to herself. "I'm sorry my plan made you worry, Flan. But still… it helped you to escape, so I don't regret doing it."

Flandre's face beamed, and she continued to hug Meiling for a few moments, completely ignoring the sound of approaching footsteps as both Suika and Remilia entered the mansion. At last, when she had become certain that her pale, weak gatekeeper friend before her would not fade away with a wisp of smoke, she released her embrace around the girl's torso. Slipping her petite hand into Meiling's larger one and gripping it strongly, she pointed toward the gaping front door with a venturesome grin. "Well anyway, now that I've found you, can we get going? There's only a couple hours left till the sun rises, so there's not a lot of time for us to mess around here. Since you're still alive from the punishment, which I can't be thankful enough for, I figure we should first stop at Eientei and get you checked out there, but then we can go wherever you like!"

Meiling stared up into Flandre's face, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Get going?" she inquired. "I'm sorry, Flan, but what are you talking about? I thought we were planning to sleep here today after spreading word of the deed."

Flandre turned back to Meiling and gently patted her head, smiling sympathetically. "Yeah, that _was_ the original plan. But my new oni companion Suika started talking to me about how I should be doing this whole thing for you, since you've been such a wonderful and selfless friend for me tonight. So, I made up my mind a little bit after she said that: I wanna go with you and leave the Scarlet Devil Mansion for good!"

Meiling was silent for a little while, and her mind couldn't decide whether to be overjoyed that Flandre wanted to accompany her on a permanent escape from the mansion or to be confused about why the vampire would so quickly change her mind for this matter. "But… why, Flan? Didn't you say that you wanted to get out of the basement and live alongside your sister as you're entitled to?"

Flandre shook her head, and her usually cheery (sometimes in an off-putting manner) face became surprisingly grave and serious. "That wish is dead. Yes, I _did_ want to live with Remi and be close to her as a loving sibling…" Her expression faltered for a moment as her words came out, but she quickly shook off her hesitation and continued on with confidence. "But that's not going to happen anymore. Remilia thought that drinking your blood would be a suitable punishment for disobeying her, and that's just something I will _never_ forgive her for. I would sooner expire in the basement than live alongside a girl who would nearly transform others into the undead just for going against her wishes, even if she is my sister, and so the deed means absolutely nothing to me anymore. I figured that since you said you wanted to retire from your job here, we could go and live somewhere else in Gensokyo together!"

"Are you certain? I mean, I don't think you can find the wealth and opulence from being mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion anywhere else in the world, and I admittedly have no idea where we'd stay in Gensokyo if we left here."

"My mind is set," Flandre replied with complete finality. "All that money is tainted with spilled blood, including yours. It'd be disgusting to bask in it. And besides, I highly doubt we'd have a significant problem finding a roof under our heads in a place like Gensokyo; from what I've heard, there's the Human Village, the shrine on Youkai Mountain, the doll master's house in the forest, the rabbit home in the bamboo woods, and even the _underground!_ The more I think about it, the more I'm certain that this is what I want to do."

"Well, if you're sure about it…" Meiling's face broke out into a wide, almost goofy smile, and her skin nearly returned to its natural color. "Thank you, Flandre. Thank you so much!"

The two close companions were only moments away from walking out of the cursed mansion for what would likely be the last time in their lives when the moonlit outside became blocked by the shadow of the young, bat-winged girl. "Pardon me, Flandre," she said slowly and deliberately, "but I couldn't help but overhear you just now. Are you positive that this is what you want to do?"

Flandre stood a few moments with utterly frosty silence, staring at her sister without an iota of hesitation or uncertainty. She raised the highly destructive metal rod of a weapon in her hand and pointed it toward the elder vampire. "Yes, Remilia, _I am_. Now, kindly move away from the door, or I'll blow you away into a fine scarlet mist."

Remilia stood her ground, mere inches away from her enraged sister. This was the moment, she determined, that Flandre would release 500 years of bottled anger and frustration in violence and assuredly bring about her sister's demise should nothing stop her. Oddly enough, contrary to her state of panic when Flandre first began to grow hostile, she felt a complete sense of Zen-like calm in the moment. It was as if time had slowed down to an eternity at that point within her mind, allowing her to thoroughly contemplate all sides of the situation.

_Well, Flandre is certainly overcome by rage toward me, that much is clear. It's understandable, of course; I did perform my vampire punishment upon her gatekeeper friend only an hour ago, although I made sure to limit myself so that she would not die nor become a vampire herself. Still, it's not as if Flandre knows that, and I doubt she'd listen if I told her so. All she'll be thinking about now is punishing me in retribution._

_Yet… she doesn't truly hate me. It's just Flandre being Flandre. She wants to be a kind girl and a good sister, but things like this that incite her instability just happen. It's not as if it's not entirely my fault, either; I should have resisted my bloodlust and created a less brutal punishment for Meiling. But I didn't, and now I shall reap what I sow, apparently._

_Perhaps Suika was right, and I have been mistaken all this time by locking her away instead of helping her through her troubles like a responsible big sister. There's no way to reverse the previous five hundred years of action, however, and so it's something I must live with for the rest of my life. Still, that doesn't mean I can't perhaps make amends at this point._

_Oh, Flandre… You're the best sort of sister a girl could ever hope to have._

After a few moments of more straight-up, analytical thinking, especially regarding her previous encounters that night with her sister, she smiled. An alternative plan to keeping her sister in by force had come into conception. _I guess it's finally time to let the cat out of the bag as Patchouli said_, she thought to herself. _Never thought this moment would really come, and especially not at a time like this, but I suppose it can't be helped now. Life goes on. _

The flow of time seemingly started up again, and Remilia took a deep breath before starting her next action. Her crimson eyes now shone with neither malice nor confident charisma, but rather simple pensiveness. "I see… Well, I'm sorry to hear you say that. You see, I'm actually not allowed to let you go out and leave the mansion. If I did that, it would violate the contract I signed when I moved our house from the real world into Gensokyo."

"Eh? A contract?" Suika piped up with curiosity, still standing in the other side of the foyer. "Is that what you were talking about when you told Flan there was a good reason you couldn't let her out of the basement?"

Remilia heaved a long, world-weary sigh from her lungs and smiled grimly, glancing at all three of the other beings within the room. Although her sister hadn't moved an inch nor lost the hostile gleam in her eyes, she had dropped Laevatein to her side at that moment. _God help me for this._ She took a few moments to carefully choose her words before finally beginning to speak again, focusing her eyes on Flandre. "Yes, that is precisely correct. Gensokyo was the only source of refuge that I could possibly have found in a wicked, hateful world. When I at last came upon it, I was so desperate to find a place of peace, comfort, and acceptance that I instantly agreed to all the stipulations involved with moving here. One of those conditions I signed my agreement toward was to not introduce further conflict and chaos into Gensokyo, and the only acceptable method with which to fulfill that was to prevent my innocent, yet unstable and violent sister from ever leaving the mansion. One thing led to another, and I suppose the matters of this house eventually evolved into what we have now."

Flandre, while retaining hatred toward Remilia in her heart, waited quietly and carefully listened to every word that exited her sister's mouth. She still held a strong grip on her Laevatein weapon, and twirled it gently at her side. As her sister completed the story that she was telling, it struck her as odd that Remilia's words sounded entirely strange and unfamiliar. _After all_, Flandre thought to herself, _if we did come from the outside world, I must have been there to witness it all myself. How could I have forgotten being forced to initially enter the basement upon arriving in a strange new land?_ "Would you like to explain why I don't have any memory whatsoever of that even, Remi?"

Remilia smirked subtly as she continued to look at her sister with patience. "Perhaps it would be easier if _you_ explained it. What do you remember about your life prior to entering the basement?"

Flandre opened her mouth as if to reply quickly, but she felt herself tense up as her mind became utterly blank. "I… well, that is… um… there was…"

"Nothing, perhaps?" Remilia suggested gently. "Don't worry; that's what I expected. See, the one who gave me the contract to sign upon entering Gensokyo was none other than the historian, teacher, and Human Village guardian Keine Kamishirasawa. She was, of course, primarily interested in the safety of her humans as she heard my request to settle in this land, and that's certainly understandable; humans are naturally frightened when the prospect of vampires who delight in drinking mortal blood comes up. As I agreed to all the conditions and began to settle into the land, however, I had a request of my own for her: to remove all the history of our life and existence prior to entering Gensokyo. I wanted our introduction to the land to be a fresh start for all of us, and Keine was quite happy to comply. That's why you don't have any memories of what you've done prior to entering the basement; that history has all been erased."

"But why would you want to do that?" Flandre inquired. "What could have possibly happened that you'd want to kill the history of it?"

Remilia laughed humorlessly, glancing at both Meiling and Suika with a wry smirk. "Well, that's quite a dangerous question for you to ask, Flan. You go into quite some perilous territory on that subject. How would you like it if I said that the events I let Keine cover up were ones that had thrown you into a horribly deep depression? How about if they had made you want to end what you deemed 'a meaningless life' by killing yourself?"

"Nonsense!" Meiling exclaimed scornfully from her position on the floor. "I've known Flandre as long as I've been the gatekeeper here, and never once has she acted suicidal! I couldn't even imagine such a cute, cheerful girl being that way."

"Well then," Remilia replied coolly, "just imagine what sort of course of events would cause her to act that way. Are you _sure_ you want to go down that path and destroy your blissful ignorance?"

"Oh, come on," Suika interrupted impatiently. "You really think we're just gonna say 'No, let's just keep our ears stuffed with cotton and go on our merry way' when you build it up like that? We don't have all day, so why don't you just spill it already!"

"I was asking _Flandre_," Remilia hissed coldly, causing the oni to grumble to herself. She turned back to her sister with a diplomatic nod. "Patchouli said earlier tonight that the truth would come out whether I like it or not, and I suppose there's nothing I can really do to prevent that. Flan, I guess what I'm saying is that I will tell you what happened if you want me to. I'd just strongly urge you to reconsider, or else brace yourself for a tale that will _not_ be a pleasant bedtime story."

Flandre gulped at the menacing sound of her sister's words, and she carefully laid out the options in her mind to deliberate between them. Although her sister seemed earnest in advising against telling it, a nagging sense of overwhelming curiosity dominated her heart. If she never learned what was so terrible as to make her wish for death, Flandre thought, she would likely go crazy in speculation. Glancing quickly at Meiling, who nodded with an encouraging smile, Flandre turned back to Remilia and folded her arms with unshakeable determination. "Tell me. That's one of the reasons why Suika and I wanted to come here in the first place, anyway. Besides, I think I can handle whatever you're going to tell me. I'm 500 years old as of today, after all!"

Remilia inhaled and released another mighty sigh, shrugging in tired resignation. "I assumed you would say that. And who knows, maybe you're right about that. I suppose we'll have to wait and see." She dropped onto the checked floor of the mansion lobby, crossing her legs against each other. Suika and Flandre wordlessly followed suit and gathered more closely around the elder vampire, while Meiling simply remained as she was on the floor. "Well then, I shall tell you a tale of sixteenth century Rouen, France. It was there and then that a particular nobleman named Antoine Scarlet lived with his two young daughters, Remilia and Flandre."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN]: **…Yeah, no comment about how long this took to create. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fate of being a horrible person for procrastination and taking a long time to produce work, but even so, this gap was quite ridiculous. I just hope you all enjoy the content as it exists finally, and maybe that could possibly atone for my lateness (not really, but still). However, I don't expect the next update will take anywhere as long as this one did to come into existence, for the sole reason that it is not going to cover an hour.

Indeed, the next chapter will cover the first of what will likely be several "Interludes", just to give a flashback and tell a story outside of the time constraints within the plot. As Remilia suggested in the last paragraph, it shall be about the history of the Scarlet sisters, starting straight from their childhood into the entrance to Gensokyo. With that, their story arc shall come to a close, and in its place we shall take a closer look at the other plots proceeding into daybreak.

Just curious, but what is your favorite character or character arc in the story? Although I have a specific timeline to write based on the plot, I would definitely add or put in a special bit of extra effort toward the scenes involving any fan favorites. Since there's so many characters taking active roles in the plot (and a couple more still will join later), it's easy for some to get forgotten, so I'd definitely like to know if any characters you enjoyed seeing have fallen a bit off the radar. This chapter was essentially aimed at focusing on every currently active story arc, and so it's not a big surprise it has become so humongous, and so I'd love to cut down on that later on for your reading sake and my writing sake. Feel free to say anything about who you do or don't care to see in a PM or review message!

There's a definite difference in quality between some of these paragraphs, but that's likely because of the long time periods (and changes in writing style) between them in writing. I'm curious as to which paragraphs seemed most well written; the Koishi introduction only took about three days to write, and yet the scene between Eirin and Alice was stalled for about four months! I'd be greatly interested in hearing what you guys think, just so I know in the future whether writing rapidly or choosing every word meticulously creates a better work in the end.

Anyway, Remilia has a story to tell, but the clock is still ticking even as she does so. How will Marisa respond to her sudden meeting with what appears to be her forgotten mistress Mima, and what will happen when Reisen is finally brought to Eirin? Why is Koakuma so intently devoted to serving Yuuka, and will the plan between them and Mystia be carried out successfully as morning quickly approaches? How will the meeting between Koishi and her two new "friends" transpire? The light of dawn will soon cast its glow upon Gensokyo, but it's anyone's guess as to what will happen to the land as it remains thickly submerged in a revolutionary plot. See you all at the next chapter!


End file.
